Abstract
India generates 62 million tones of municipal solid waste per year of which, only 75% of the waste is collected and only 22% of the collected waste (i.e. 16% of the total generated waste) is segregated, processed or treated. Thus, 84% of the total waste either ends up on the roads or in landfills. The country is fast running out of land to fill and thus in many cities quarries are being dug to dispose the waste. This centralized infrastructure is in far off peripheries of the city , extravagant in size . While also having the entire city dotted with large masonry community bins. The system is failing majorly . It is a calling for refreshed–new way of addressing the problem of waste. The fundamental shift from waste collection to waste management via decentralized methods offers platform to pivot the negative impacts of service infrastructure into a positive one . City is a ecosystem of ecology and economy, it is an accumulation of services and resources such as heat energy waste and water. These occupy valuable urban land. Local waste collection points are one of such infrastructure , consistently, spread across the city , in the public areas were we stumble upon it during walking , shopping , eating , playing and other such daily activities. The question of how can this be made into an asset for the community and urban ecosystem? Currently, in urban setting, the points of contact with nature are limited to parks, which, according to the study have more presence of older people and toddlers, while negligible presence of the youth. The project displays an opportunity to have positive impact of this essential infrastructure on the community and urban service system of waste , soil nutrition , waster harvesting , health via recreation . Reinventing the definition of park for engaging youth, community building , edutainment , service design. Stop seeing the human presence detrimental to our ecosystem but tried to integrate and consumptions into our natural environment, strengthening and making urban metabolism more resilient . Reimagining waste collection point into waste management point with sensitive contextual response via techno spatial products that are urban acupunctures in function and urban toys in visuals. It is a conscious way of harvesting natural ecosystem of daylight, wind movement, rainwater. More importantly, it creates a metabolism for the city to convert waste into resource . It is currently developed by Ministry of Human resource development’s Design innovation cell.
