Pune pioneers sanitary waste solutions
113,000 tons of used sanitary pads are dumped in landfills in India every year, leading to health and environmental hazards. Pune wants to change that, and has launched a campaign to process sanitary waste responsibly.
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00:00 A bag marked with a red dot warns the garbage workers that they are handling sensitive private
00:07 waste like dirty diapers, used condoms and menstrual pads.
00:13 If you are disgusted by your own waste, imagine how we feel.
00:18 We have to touch it with the same hands that we eat with.
00:23 The so-called red dot campaign that urges residents to separate their sanitary waste
00:28 is Driven by Swachh, a cooperative of sanitation workers like Vidya Naiknawari.
00:40 This scheme is unique to Pune, a city is India's western state of Maharashtra.
00:45 The city currently has 3,700 Swachh workers who collect waste from almost a million households,
00:52 nearly 70% of the entire city.
00:58 The fees are paid by the individual households.
01:01 It costs roughly 1 Euro per month for an apartment.
01:05 By paying and separating their waste, the residents are acknowledging the dignity of
01:09 the workers and the services they are getting.
01:15 We started telling the citizens to wrap up the sanitary waste before handing it over
01:22 to us because it also affects our health.
01:31 As access to hygiene products has improved, so has the problem of waste.
01:36 Much of this waste is non-biodegradable and when burnt releases toxic gases as plastic
01:41 tends to be a big component of sanitary products.
01:45 In India so far, this waste mostly ends up in landfills and incinerators.
01:54 But this is now changing.
01:55 The local government of Pune was the first civic body in India to enact sanitary waste
01:59 recycling - waste collected by the workers of the Red Dot campaign.
02:04 We were not allowed to film the recycling since the project is still in an early stage.
02:10 The city is using a plant provided by US multinational company Procter & Gamble, the world's leading
02:16 diaper maker and one of the biggest contributors to the problem.
02:21 The plant has a capacity of 50 tons per week.
02:26 This is the first big plant or this capacity plant is first in India or the first in the
02:31 world.
02:32 Disinfection will be done and then the recycling of all the parts, means the fiber, cloth,
02:38 cotton and everything will be separated, segregated and each and every component will be recycled.
02:48 The Pune based startup Padcare has gone a step further.
02:52 It already has a patent for its technology.
02:55 The company collects sanitary pads in specially designed bins.
02:59 Then they are taken to the plant to be processed.
03:04 At source disposal we have developed dedicated Padcare bin which is a small compact device.
03:09 We are providing it free of cost.
03:12 That goes into an individual cubicle where the user can dispose the pad or the woman
03:17 can dispose the pad while maintaining her own health, hygiene and privacy.
03:22 The beauty of these bins is that these pads can store for 30 days without any odor and
03:27 bacterial growth.
03:29 That ensures the hygiene aspect.
03:31 Then our training staff, service executives are going there, collecting the sanitary waste.
03:37 In the processing plant, the pads are shredded, disinfected and decolorized by a machine specially
03:42 developed by Padcare.
03:45 At the end of the process, two types of material are left.
03:49 One is a plastic which is a PE rich and one is a, this kind of pulp.
03:54 This pulp is more than 98% pure.
03:57 In different applications in different industries like paper and packaging industry.
04:02 This plastic we convert into this kind of granules.
04:06 And these granules we are converting back to the Padcare bin that goes into the plant
04:12 location of the woman where she is disposing the pad.
04:15 So this is how we are taking the circularity into the picture.
04:19 The business model seems to be working out.
04:21 Though the Padcare bins are free of cost, customers are charged per pickup and per bin.
04:26 This accounts for 80% of the revenue of the company.
04:29 It wants to take the technology to a global level and says there is already huge interest
04:34 from Western countries.
04:36 Experts point out however that it is the manufacturing companies that are a big part of the problem
04:42 because they don't have a solution to the waste that is created later on.
04:47 Fixing that problem through technology, although much needed, is not enough, experts say.
04:51 The bigger issue is the generation of the waste itself.
04:55 I think the first important elephant that we need to address in the room is behavior
04:59 change.
05:00 How do you get everybody to behave in a certain way with their sanitary waste.
05:04 The second piece which I really like is where you have far more fun engaging conversations
05:09 on women and you talk to them about what are these really cool options.
05:12 So for example, my idea of a cloth pad was very, you know, purane zamane ka, some torn
05:19 rag or whatever, until I found out that they're so pretty looking, right?
05:23 Then that can be a great conversation to initiate with people and get them to understand how
05:30 to use it.
05:32 An effective system will need individuals and authorities to work together.
05:36 While reusable options like cloth pads have entered markets, they have barely made a dent.
05:41 Experts think that the problem of sanitary waste can be solved, but only when large-scale
05:46 manufacturers coupled with effective policymaking help citizens make sustainable choices on
05:51 a daily basis.