A handbook to help create zero-waste offices in Bengaluru and beyond Premium

We often follow a use-and-throw lifestyle, with nearly 50% of plastic being used only once before being discarded. A handbook by Saahas and Rainmatter Foundation talks about how people can move towards a zero or low-waste way of living.

“The best way to manage waste is not to generate it in the first place,” says Smita Kulkarni, Communications Consultant, Saahas.

Towards this goal, the non-profit, in partnership with the Rainmatter Foundation, recently released a free guidebook that can help offices in the city minimise their waste. According to Kulkarni, also the co-founder of the social enterprise Stonesoup, many corporations today are already looking at ways to be sustainable, “some for namesake, and some in a deeper sense.” 

As the guidebook, available for free on both the Saahasand Rainmatter Foundation, points out,  we often follow a use-and-throw lifestyle, with nearly 50% of plastic being used only once before being thrown away. And even if some of these single-use materials are recyclable, they are best avoided, says the guidebook, pointing out that not only is plastic the most significant contributor of mixed waste, but recycling items made of it takes a lot of resources. Additionally, there are few takers of recycled plastic since it becomes dull and brittle after processing, states the guidebook, adding, “Not everything gets recycled.”

Tanmayi Gidh, part of the Outreach and Communications team at Rainmatter Foundation, elaborates on the guidebook’s raison d’etre. “While zero waste is the ideal, it can sometimes feel a little overwhelming,” says Gidh. She feels that moving towards a zero or low-waste lifestyle is not as overwhelming and abstract as it is made out to be, provided one has concrete steps and alternatives listed. “That was the whole intention of developing this guidebook,” she says. 

Gidh also discusses the project’s genesis. The seeds for the guidebook, she says, were sown around World Environment Day, which falls on June 5. When they considered developing a campaign around the day, they felt that instead of treating it as a one-off event, it is important to create something long-lasting more focused on specific stakeholders.

Waste management, after all, is a crucial piece of the narrative around the environment and climate crisis. “ It is the most tangible problem. Everyone has an impact on that problem, and everyone’s life is impacted by it,” she says, adding that the Rainmatter Foundation decided to start by engaging corporates in the zero-waste pledge because of the volume of waste produced in offices and also because of the ability of changemakers to influence the culture and implement systemic changes in their own organisations. 

As part of the larger World Environment Day campaign, Saahas and the Rainmatter Foundation jointly conducted a zero-waste workshop focused on corporates. From there came the idea of the gap that crops up when changes are suggested, she says. “There is very little support provided to materialise that change, especially when you are doing it at a systemic cultural level,” she believes, pointing out that it takes a lot of handholding, collaboration and support from people who understand the space well. “So yes, we can suggest alternatives. But who is going to help them understand where it can start from,”  says Gidh, who believes that the guidebook can help provide this starting point for anyone since it puts all the information and resources in one place.