Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

The Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) comprises snow covered peaks, glaciers feeding perennial rivers which provide water to a third of India‚ population, numerous valuable plant and wildlife species, and impacts the seasonal cycles globally.

This ecosystem is deteriorating due to increased waste generation and improper disposal like slope dumping and open burning. Waste negatively impacts high-altitude wildlife food chain causing painful deaths, leaches into ground and rivers thus reducing agricultural yield and water quality, and when burnt, PM2.5 deposits on glaciers, causing faster melting. 

WWS has been cleaning the IHR across urban, rural and eco-sensitive landscapes to mitigate waste dumping and burning by driving source segregation through behaviour change, bridging infrastructure gaps for proper solid waste management. WWS empowers local communities including waste workers and generates awareness through Information, Education, Communication on source segregation and 3R. WWS‚ solution impacts snow leopards, tigers and various high-altitude flaura and fauna.

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How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

WWS interventions directly avoid and reduce GHG emissions arising from municipal solid waste (MSW) and household wet waste.
 The interventions cover:
1. Dry Waste Processing: 
In the last 10 years, WWS has processed close to 6000MT of waste from the Indian Himalayan Region, which otherwise would have ended up in landfills and garbage vulnerable points. As per Manfredi et al., 2017, close to 415MTs of carbon dioxide emissions would have been generated from the waste diverted by WWS, if it were landfilled. 

2. Wet Waste Processing: 
Wet waste composting significantly reduces GHG emissions by improving carbon sequestration in the soil and mitigating methane emissions through aerobic decomposition (US EPA). WWS runs an IVAC (In-Vessel Automated Composter) with a capacity of 1TPD to manage wet waste collected from our intervention areas. The waste, otherwise ending up in landfills, is converted into high-quality compost for at-home and agricultural utilization. The same waste, if not managed by WWS, would lead to significant methane emissions and possible methane explosions in the municipal landfill.

Our interventions cover the following steps:
a. Source segregation: Inculcating behavioral change in local citizens and floating population (eg. travelers) to segregate waste at their end, thus mitigating waste to landfill movement. WWS intensively focuses on Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) and community engagement events to drive source segregation in our target areas. IEC aids in overcoming KAP (Knowledge, Attitude and Practice) barriers (Puri, 2017). 
b. Pre-processing (Secondary and tertiary segregation): Pre-processing and further segregating waste into multiple categories reduces burden on the environment and mitigates GHG emissions (Rangga, 2023). WWS further segregates waste into 27 categories to be later sent for recycling.
c. Reinjection into value chain: With multiple partnerships in the ecosystem, in line with Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and other strategies, WWS supplies the waste back to the value chain for upcycling, reusing and recycling. 
d. Infrastructure Development: Setting up MRFs (Material Recovery Facilities) and waste banks to properly pre-process waste through segregation, baling, shredding etc. and store it for sending to end recyclers.
e. Government Convergence: Building capacity of local governments and training stakeholders to effectively manage solid waste within the community, and driving convergence within various agencies (forest, municipal corporation, village-level governments, tourism department etc.) to tap various government schemes/policies and implement SWM solutions.
f. Community Empowerment: Empowering marginalising sections of society including informal waste sector in India, especially women and girl children who face disproportionate impact of climate change, global warming and waste-related pollution. Our programs formalize their employment, run innovative campaigns to support livelihoods, generate women-run livelihood by breaking social taboos and inculcating ownership towards waste, and empower local youth to seize opportunities in the waste sector.

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Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

In India, social stigma around waste and waste workers has been deep-rooted in the fabric of society. Waste collection and disposal has been the role and responsibility of specific castes in India, and this caste divide has made waste-related communities extremely vulnerable to climate and environment changes. 
Even though the caste-based discrimination has significantly reduced in urban settings, rural and peri-urban areas still observe this practice, pushing people from these communities to live near garbage points and dumpsites.

 WWS enables these informal waste workers by 
(a) creating local women-driven groups that generate income from user fee, sale of recyclables, and plastic credits to manage waste;
(b) enabling access to basic citizen rights and documentation with ecosystem partners;
(c) empowering them by onboarding and hiring on our payrolls; (d) safeguarding workplace health and hygiene by giving them adequate equipment. 

WWS empowers communities working in waste, especially women, by reducing pay disparities and offering safer working environments. WWS focuses intensively on awareness around at-home waste management and segregation, and supports dignified employment for waste workers across our project locations.

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