FOREWARD
The #1 advice over the last two years has been about wearing masks & taking precautions. These blue coloured jewellery with a pair of white strips were once could be seen only with the health officials or on the faces of the most "coronavirus-prepared". But now, these face masks have become a ubiquitous symbol of the pandemic. Take a walk around the neighbourhood, and you will encounter some used Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) like face masks or gloves lying around the footpaths. If you haven't got your eye on it, you are lucky to be residing in a neighbourhood where people are aware of the proper disposal mechanism or at least they have been segregating their waste.
Since all of this is happening in our everyday life, we are very well-acknowledged with these issues. But when we speak about "why should we care?" it forces us to look at the other end of the string. Where does this littering actually go? Does it gets vanished? How it is managed? How the government is regulating it? And perhaps, how it will eventually come back into our lives again?
Over the course of 9 days, I tried to reflect on this context by addressing the three main questions revolving in almost everyone's head whom I interviewed -
# What is this problem? How huge is it?
# Why should we care?
# How can we solve this?
Due to time constraints and the unfortunate time we're living in - this research paper might not address every aspect of the topic. But I tried to cover every apparent touchpoint in my neighbourhood, which have not had petitioned properly. The insights from this project could then serve as a jump-board for more detailed and nuanced explorations.
MY ROLE
Research, Analytics and
UX Design
TIMELINE
5 Weeks
COLLAB.
Nanditha Viswanath
Jnanendra R B
BRIEFING UP
While we were struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic and registering crores of cases each day, the epidemic was pushing with a whole new source of pollution - the Bio-Medical Waste. These pieces of equipment (like masks, gloves, medicines, syringes, wipes) is helping people worldwide to protect themselves from the coronavirus. No one imagined that these shields would result in tearing apart our environment. Not just made up of plastics, but these "disposable" equipments are thrown away after one-time use. In other words, the litter could still be guesting the virus, forming a surprising pathway for cross-contamination of coronavirus. This is just one end of the scenario. Sometimes, because of lack of segregation, the Bio-Medical Waste get mixed up with other domestic garbage and pushes a huge risk to the lives of sanitation workers who quite often work without being trained for handling such hazardous waste.
Government and different associations have put in a lot of work and have introduced guidelines, rules and regulations to fortify a smooth process for the disposal of COVID-19 bio-medical waste. However, the major setback is in its implementation. So through this project, I tried to explore these implementation roadblocks and provide base solutions for them. The project goal would be achieved by addressing the following objectives -
1.
Creating general awareness of this problem by addressing fundamental but crucial inquiries regarding proper disposal of Bio-Medical Waste.
2.
Finding & Evaluating different ways in which citizens feedback could be gathered by wastemanagement companies.
3.
Identifying ways to increase citizens engagement with the waste sector.
LINE OF INQUIRY
How do we draw up a framework to fortify systems, aware & sensitize citizens and protect frontline workers? Can waste management be looked at as a critical service?
Q.
Are the waste generators (households, labs, quarantine centres or hospitals) aware of how much bio-medical waste is producing every day? Are they segregating the waste as per the guidelines issued by India’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs? Are they sensitized with different stakeholders & institutions working to dispose of their waste properly? How can they help other stakeholders in the system to fight against the rising problem of garbage? How could they makeother people (at their level) take charge of their bio-medical waste and manage it properly?
Q.
Working at the most crucial touch-points in a journey of waste from households to disposal, how responsible does safai karamcharis, waste pickers or sanitation workers feel? What are the challenges they face while dealing with both ends of the system (the waste generators & the ministry)? Are they provided with all the assets/supporting materials (like Mask, PPE Kits etc) for their job to be done well?
Q.
Is the system communicating regularly & efficiently with the citizens & their frontline workers for managing the waste at levels? Are the rules & regulations for waste management reflected at the grassroots level, including every stakeholder? Are they aware of the challenges faced by a citizen while implementing their proposed "manual" of waste management?
01
PRELIMINARY DESK RESEARCH
A sprint of preliminary research will not only provide a concrete base for this huge topic but I'll also try to not some important points for the later stages of the project and get inspired from existing case studies.
B
02
MAPPING STAKEHOLDERS
This is certainly a crucial step to look through the perspective of every person involved in waste management for producing a better co-create space. But I'll also try to keep it succinct and magnified - so that it doesn't turn out to be very overwhelming.
C
03
CONVERSATIONAL RESEARCH
I will try to initiate a conversation about waste management with whomever I can. Making it "conversational" will provide behavioural insights about what people consciously or unconsciously think about this issue or are they well aware of. Not only that, the open-ended conversation will provide a holistic view of their everyday frustrations & barriers - which is also the key area of the project.
D
04
IDENTIFYING TOUCH POINTS
I will dilute to some key touch-points where there is room for intervention and which will benefit two or more stakeholders at the same time.
E
05
SYSTEM MAPPING & ARCHITECTURE
A holistic view of how a user will use and get benefited from the proposed solution will be mapped out.
F
06
PROTOTYPING
Building a platform or a system which will target one key audience but will involve multiple stakeholders.
MAPPING STAKEHOLDERS
KEY INSIGHTS
01.
Researchers, Scientists & Advisors
•
From the start of the pandemic, the scarcity of data has been a major barrier.
•
No access to the data collected by government agencies.
•
They need data to help them understand and fight with the pandemic wave.
•
They aren't able to get insights from the ground level.
•
Lack of communication with the government & policy makers.
•
Lack of data extends the study, resulting in delayed predictions
02.
Government & Policy Makers
•
No feedbacks from the citizens makes it difficult to analyse and updateproposed regulations.
•
Blurry connection with the ground public
•
Pressure from other ministries & stakeholders
•
Lack of trusts
03.
Households
•
Initial stage where waste is generated uncorrected without proper separation, resulting in biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste mixed together.
•
Lack of awareness about government policies & regulations.
•
Lack of motivation to segregate waste
04.
Local Waste Collector
•
All type of waste piles up from different households in that locality without segregation.
05.
Local Waste Segregator
•
Segregation becomes a threat to theperson segregating due to various toxins and multiple types of bacterias/viruses mixed in the waste.
CONVERSATIONAL RESEARCH
In my neighbourhood, almost every house have some experience with coronavirus disease in their family since the pandemic. Still, they are not even aware of producing bio-medical waste every day and segregating it.
"My work is to take all of this garbage to the storage site." A garbage collector replied when I asked - why he is just listening to songs and not checking if everyone is discharging their waste into his truck properly? He continued, "Well, I am at least on time. I did my part. But I cannot ask everyone to put their waste in different coloured bags."
After collecting the garbage from our houses, the waste picker unloads his truck into a local transit point. Our job of segregating and our mixed-garbage gets passed on to a group of safai karamcharis & sanitation workers, who pick and segregate it into different types of waste for its proper disposal. This job comes up with many health risks - the infectious waste mixed & hidden with all the garbage can equally be hazardous and if not handled appropriately, can increase the spread of infection.
# COVID IMPACT
Lately, I happened to meet a friend of my father at the supermarket. He shares the unfortunate news of his wife being tested positive for COVID-19. That's when I saw that he was disposing of his wife's biomedical waste with the general domestic waste - without any segregation.
"Do you know the possible repercussions of this act? Are you aware of the risks it poses to the safai karmachari, who would be responsible for collecting this garbage?" I asked my uncle. "Do you understand that if someone comes in contact with this particular garbage or even that sanitation worker, they would also be at high risk of catching the virus?" Then he just abruptly ended the conversation by asking, "Okay, so what is the correct way of disposal then?"
There’s another rising issue which isn't just about waste generating from healthcare centres. The disease is constantly being spreading beyond hospitals. Most of the patients who have minor symptoms are isolating and recovering at home. While the asymptomatic really don't know that the trash they're throwing could be contaminated! In other words, virus-loaded trash has been generating regularly and is untraceable as is mixed with the municipality waste.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW) is anticipating that an excessive amount of waste is being generated as a repercussion of all the measures we have adopted during the epidemic. The govt. of India and all the ministries have also been doing tremendous work to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. With all-new guidelines, rules & regulations, they have done everything to prescribe the proper disposable of PPEs and Bio-Medical Waste.
Q. So where is all this mixed waste going?
“On the face of it, India seems well equipped to handle this extra load of biomedical waste with a nation incineration capacity of 800 tonnes a day. But experts said other factors needed to be taken into account." - Trisha Mukherjee@science.thewire.in
These incinerators are built to treat medical waste, so it demands the inputs to be already segregated. That comes down to the question of how we segregate waste (or actually, not)? Households have been practising a really low level of segregation with the increased use of plastic waste.
From our research, we got to know that most of the residents aren't even aware of these guidelines. So when I asked about using "yellow bags" to pack their hazardous waste, I got attacked by a question asking, "where can we get these yellow bags?" To be honest, even I didn't really know the shop where I can buy one in my locality. After some neighbourhood meetings, we all concluded the prime reason for this problem. We found out that those government guidelines have not been passed efficiently to the ground level to our knowledge.
And even the implementation of these rules & regulations is a major setback. The truck showing up every morning to collect our waste is directed by two men - one of them is driving and the other one doesn't care if we are discharging mixed waste. However, as a waste generator, my neighbours do not consider this as a problem or their duty. But their incompetency to give feedback about this issue to the respected corporation is a major pain point.
Q. How big is the problem of single-use masks in comparison to plastic bottles & bags? Why do masks have to be plastic?
The general population, who just need to wear a mask to protect others 'like they are meeting somebody and they don't know whether they are infected or not and they have to protect the other person they are with' - for that, they don't need to wear a plastic mask. A plastic mask is designed for surgery or a hospital environment. So rather a reusable mask (maybe cotton) but not plastic is a better idea!
COVID LITTERING ISSUES
Cities, beaches and oceans have been hit by a wave of COVID-19 waste including face masks, gloves, plastic sanitisers bottles and Food Packagings.
- UNCTAD
Physical distancing has also led to flood of products delivered daily to home - wrapped in a plethora of packaging from online shoppings and takeout services.
- UNCTAD
Plastic sacks of medical waste piling up outside hospitals, and used personal protective equipment are found floating in coastal waters and washing up on the world’s beaches.
- World Economic Forum
Many waste-management services have not been operating in full capacity, owing to physical distancing norms and thus leading to slower disposal of plastic waste.
- World Economic Forum
After doing my research I decided to focus of the households. However, to begin with, I will concentrate my research on the resedential colonies, and not the apartments or societies. The reason being that colonies lack the factor of leadership and that why we can notice major problem at this level.
With an intention to scale up my "would-be" solution and to deep dive into its roots, I talked to some of my friends and their family, living in different parts of India. The insights from which are noted as below -
Most people living in societies or Flats have mentioned that their property managers itself have provide them three small bins to segregate at home.
People living at residential colonies, on the main roads, highways or around any area of public gathering have reported littering of PPEs in their area.
Around 60% of the people were aware withthe rules & regulations about the BMW from the government, they experienced some implementing barriers while acknowledging it.
The other 40% haven’t been communicated well about how should they segregate their waste.
No clarity on the endpoints of BMW generated. Where is it end up going?
Most of the healthcare institutions have been working on this problem, and actually efficiently. Some big chains Actually have small plants to treat their own BMW.
IDEATION
Due to the heavy demand of this project to research, I started out my ideations by thinking strategically. I have a benefit of being a normal citizen & a researcher. I already scaled my research down to my neighbourhood, and now I tried to put myself in the position of a citizen as well as a researcher to see how would both of these stakeholders will clear their neighbourhood.
In a 20-minute walk around the neighbourhood, I came across around 12 used up masks, 4 defaced rubber gloves and around 7 pieces of dirty clothes that looked like tissues or wet wipes. This short walk has struck me with a lot more Bio-Medical waste than my expectation.
In residential colonies, you could find it littered around the hidden corners or maybe behind old slabs. But you could majorly find it around the shops or places of public gatherings. And you are lucky if you came across a hospital or a health clinic, where you could find all sorts of PPEs.
The point of this short research was to understand the realism of this problem - which could further benefit me to see which colonies are cleaner or dirtier than mine. Also, this will allow me to exercise with data and reflect the same on my solutions.
DOING GOOD IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
The proposed solution, 'Wayste Tracker' would look into ways to bridge the gap between Researcher, Scientist, Policy Maker and a regular citizen. Even during my own research, I faced a lot of issues to gather data about COVID Waste. And soon enough, I realised how data could help scientist, researchers & even policy makers to analyse situation and take informed decisions.
The Wayste Initiative looks to hold a positive impact with these three touchpoints -
01
Poster & Awareness - In this touchpoint, I will focus on to create awareness among the citizens and also answer some most asked question from my conversational research. The medium of this touchpoint would be digital as well as physical. I'll look into way through which we can use the platform like social media - which is throbbing with a completely different issue of misinformation. We can see through the wave of these misinformation that people are actually trying all those 'COVID se bachne ke upay' sent from their family & friends. This makes social media a potential gateway to reach maximum population and push them into proper waste management. Also, this issue of misinformations spreading all across over social media, tells us about the psychology of human mind. One person tends to do something, if they see someone they know is also doing the same thing. This insight builds up another medium of 'public boards with warnings' - installed at different public places like cinema halls, beaches, bus stands etc. A simple warning sign (like pack your own waste) with some statistics holds enough power to change one mindset!
02
The Wayste Tracker App - Waste Tracker App is based in the ideology of citizen-science to spread awareness and at the same time - to gather quality data. The mobile app that will provide citizens to log littering of COVID Wayste around their locality. It will act as a platform to the touchpoint 3, which would be an open-data platform. Therefore, the app will allow citizen to collect data about their locality and help scientists by delivering their feedbacks.
03
The Opensourced Data platform - The data accessible on the website will help scientist, researchers, innovators and other strategical thinkers to develop data-driven solutions to the threats of COVID Waste. The data will help them to drive positive changes globally as well as locally!
USER JOURNEY
--
Hey look, this poster is talking about where my waste goes? Well, I wasn't really sure about that. Let's see what else this organisation does. *Scans Barcode*
--
Hello friends, Manjunath suggested this application where we allcan login and clean up the city together. Apparently, they alsohave point system - through which we can get discount coupons too.
But why?
Gets firm understanding of why waste management is important through facts & figures onboarding screens
OMG, I never knew that this was all happening in the background. I so want to volunteer for this.
So how?
Understood all the features of the application and how to use it.
Oh great, now I don't have to keep a note about the types of waste and their location.
Okay! Let's do it.
Invited his friends, created a 'new track' and started collected waste.
Ok pals, let do it. I am sending you'll an invitation link. You all can join and track. And even if you didn't want to dirty your hands, just pin the location some of us will come and pick it up.
Karma
Points
Oh well, I will avail these discount coupons at the store. Hard work literally paid off.
Sharing the
Tracking Data
Oh great, now I can send it to the concerned authorities without hesitating about the proof. I can say them - "Look mister, this is whats happening! Let's discuss about what could we do?"
Shareable
Cerificate
*Thanks for helping scientists in completing their studies.*
- Email Pops Up.
Oh great! Glad I could help. I am soproud of myself.
Cleaner
Neighbourhood
Look Uncle, how clean are colony has become. You can also give your little support to it!
I will send you the link :)
