A TedX talk on trash: Ribhu Vohra speaks on 'Garbology 101'- an educational toolkit to inspire children to be waste conscious

How is trash produced, processed and consumed? What can an individual do to understand and be a part of a waste conscious society? Garbology 101, an educational toolkit uses fun tools to inspire children!

Ribhu Vohra begins his trash talk by talking about what constitutes waste, which country leads the per capita waste generation and why India is affected more by the huge mounds of garbage produced. He states that it is our lack of infrastructure to deal with this huge problem and how the waste thrown is actually energy lost.

The waste hierarchy explains the most favoured option of avoidance to the least favoured one of landfills. India produces 5 lac tons of waste everyday, 94% of which goes straight to landfills. Only 5 % of the waste is composted though in actuality at least 50 % can be composted and serve as a potential source of energy. Unfortunately in India landfill are the preferred method of waste disposal.

Ribhu feels that the solution lies in changing our behaviour and we need to begin by segregating waste as a matter of routine. This is possible only through mass awareness campaigns to make our world a wasteless place. We need to realise that there is no ‘away’, everything that we throw stays on this finite earth only. It is us the consumers who have a larger effect on waste consumed.

This educational tool created by his team has fun games, handouts, and teaches children about conscious consumerism, to be able to green wash advertisements and understand the truth behind them. It is this participatory approach that can enhance awareness on waste, its impacts and help bring about a long term and lasting behavioural change. It helps look at waste from different themes and perspectives

The model aims to provide children with knowledge, skills and tools to inspire them to change their thinking of waste in India and help create a waste conscious society. WasteLess dreams of every student learning ’garbology’, thinking in terms of changing the world one piece of garbage at a time!