Waste not

The Bengaluru Masterplan 2031 estimates the amount of waste generated per day at 13,911 tonnes in the next 14 years. It means the city is staring at a major garbage crisis. If you feel we are already in the middle of it, be prepared for worse.

Ideas like SpillSavers can help. In 2015, when Chennai was dealing with the double whammy of floods and garbage, Pooja Dixit replaced Chennai with Bengaluru, in her mind. That is how SpillSavers, renting out dinnerware for parties, came into being. All one needs to do is to get in touch with SpillSavers on its FB page. Reach Pooja’s house in RT Nagar to collect the items, use and return as it is, without washing. “We want to make it as easy as using disposables. The idea is to discourage people from using disposables because they are adding to the garbage problem in the city,” says Pooja, who has catered to over 500 parties in the city.

According to the Masterplan, of the 13,699 tonnes of waste, 64 per cent will be wet waste and 27 per cent dry. An IT professional, Pooja quit her job to run SpillSavers offering good quality melamine dinnerware and polycarbonate glasses. “I believe that the waste is to reduced at the source itself. I try and create zero-waste. I live in an independent house and do composting. Very soon, I am moving to an apartment where I will try and convince people to start composting. I use menstrual cups,” says Pooja.

SpillSavers started on a positive note but lasted for a short time. The issues of logistics, bad investments affected SpillSavers following which Pooja has downsized it. “I invested heavily into expensive dinnerware and realised that for big parties, people go to big caterers, who would come and drop everything at the venue. With SpillSavers, you have to come and collect it. With steep transportation charges, it wasn’t feasible for me to drop off the stuff or for people to come to my place and pick it up. I had to bear the cost of breakages and missing items. I wasn’t able to break even. I think I need a good business model and I am open to suggestions,” explains Pooja.

While in the initial stages, she was helped by her friend Shalini Goel, right now, Pooja is managing it alone. The focus is on smaller events like birthday parties, get-togethers, house warming ceremonies of up to 50 people and she is happy doing a select few through word of mouth. “All I need is a minimum order of ₹500. You can order only plates or just bowls. Since I want to make it easy for people, I tell them to return everything unwashed. Recently a couple got engaged. For their engagement party, the hired caterer was offering thermocol bowls for desserts. The couple wanted to go eco-friendly and had heard about us. So, they took only bowls from us.”

Since Bengaluru is full of committed enthusiastic people who want to bring in a change to their surroundings, Pooja is little surprised by the lukewarm response. “I need someone with business acumen to join me. I can bear the cost but someone else will have to run it, if it is to run on a large scale. But as of now, I am happy doing it on a smaller scale too. In fact, I think different apartment complexes can pool in money and invest in tableware. So, whenever they have a birthday party or an event, it can be used. We will be able to stop so much waste from going to the landfill.”

Reach out to Pooja on www.facebook.com/SpillSavers