In episode 9, we zoom in on waste. Many countries – regardless of their level of industrialisation – are still dumping or incinerating components and products they do not want or need, rather than fixing, refurbishing, repurposing, passing on and segregating them. Virgin material is often less expensive than the used equivalent, and the consumer base for sustainable products is still niche because of cost and lack of awareness.
However, policy and education can change all of this. For Swati Singh Sambyal, Europe is starting to make progress. In the Global South, though, dismantling an unsustainable waste ecosystem will require governments standing up to cartels, and imposing landfill or incineration taxes. Recovered materials should be subject to low levels of tax. Polymers that cannot easily be repaired, remanufactured or recycled should be highly taxed. Recycling, often unregulated in the Global South, should be the last resort.
Swati is an advocate of decentralised waste management, giving the example of root zone wastewater treatment. Domestic and industrial wastewater passes down the natural gradient of the ground through a series of anaerobic and aerobic processes to purify wastewater.
We also talk to two businesses taking surplus materials to create beautiful, useful new objects:
Shashank Nimkar, inspired by broken ceramics on the roadside in Khurja, India’s capital of the material, uses rejects that would otherwise remain unweathered at Earth Tatva. He describes how he stumbled across clay itself as a binder, which means no segregation or separation is required at the end of his products’ use. He has started with tableware, with the idea that it would help propagate the idea of sustainability through its aesthetics and visibility.
This is similar to Anselm Croze, whose company Kitengela Hot Glass has been transforming scrap into glasses and jugs, but also furniture and murals, on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, for nearly three decades. His process of blown glass requires used engine oil, though procuring that is not without its challenges, as he explains.
Both Shashank and Anselm plan to expand geographically and into different sectors. Shashank sees opportunities in using ceramics from demolition sites for new buildings, subject to more research to be able to separate tiles from cement. He believes the processing of the material must be decentralised, to avoid transporting the waste and then the finished products across long distances.
Listen to our three speakers for this and more ways to confine landfills and incineration to history.
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Owner, Kitengela Hot Glass by Anselm
Anselm Croze is the owner of Kitengela Hot Glass, located on the edge of Kenyan wilderness, 50 minutes from Nairobi city centre. His journey with glass blowing took a big step forward in 1991, when he trained in Holland with glass masters Willem & Bernard Heesen. Kitengela’s works range from individual glass artworks to entire collections custom designed for restaurants, hotels, lodges, camps and other corporate clients throughout Africa. Inspired by the pragmatism of the Kenyan ‘jua kali’ (literally ‘hot sun’) artisans, Anselm elaborates: “They make shoes from tires, stoves and lamps from old cans, using discarded items to make needed objects. That’s ingrained in our ethos here. We’ve just taken it a step further.
CEO & Founder, Earth Tatva
Shashank is a multi-award winner cross-disciplinary designer who enjoys working with materials and developing solutions that add value to our society. He innovated Earth Tatva as a part of his graduation project for his Master’s programme at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India. Using Earth Tatva ‘s recycled ceramic material he aims to turn the linear ceramic production into a circular process. So that the industry & studios can collectively reduce the carbon footprint while continue making high aesthetic and functional ceramic wares. Along with being an industrial eco-designer he is also an animator. In a sentence, he is best described as an amalgamation of purposeful execution with contextual narration.
SWATI SINGH SAMBYAL
Waste Management Specialist, UN-Habitat India
Swati Singh Sambyal is a renowned researcher on resource management. Swati has worked in India as well as across Global South on development issues concerning integrated waste and resource management. She has been a part of the National Geographic forum on circular economy. Swati is trained at Swedish EPA, Stockholm and Norwegian EPA, Oslo on environmental governance and planning. She is presently associated as a Waste Management Specialist with UNHABITAT India looking after projects in India and Global South on plastics and landfill remediation. She has worked as the head of a programme on Municipal Solid Waste at New Delhi based environment policy and advocacy organisation, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) for 9 years.