Forever, there has been a lot of talks about the garbage issue that’s a black mark on the garden city. People have talked about the importance of segregation of garbage, the proper disposal of plastics and much more. But even after all the effort being taken to curb the issue, nothing has happened. In a quest to make a change that will actually work, Nivedha RM got down and dirty and invented Trashbot, a machine that segregates your garbage within minutes. Talking to her, we find out more....
When 23-year-old Nivedha saw people cribbing about the stinking pile of garbage near her college and home, she decided to do something about it. She shares, “Rather than waiting for others to do it, I went ahead with a group of people and cleaned up the entire street. But the sad reality is that within a week’s time, it was back to the initial state. It was just a temporary fix and not an end solution.” As a person who does not like the feeling of being helpless, Nivedha realised the importance of proper segregation. Taking over two years to create the machine, she worked in a dumpsite to make it happen. On whether Nivedha got all the support needed, she says, “I held a good job with a steady income but this was my passion. My mom pushed me to take it up even though my life was sorted. I was apprehensive since I come from a middle class family and everyone from the industry told me it would be tough. My mom supported me financially and emotionally.”
Her teachers too were very supportive, “In fact, one of my teachers — Anupama ma’am, opened up her kitchen for us to experiment for the first time,” shares Nivedha, who was born in Chennai. She joined hands with her mentor Saurabh Nirmala Jain to establish Trashcon. The machine, Trashbot, is available in four capacities — 500 kgs, two tonnes, five tonnes and ten tonnes.
She initially tried segregating with the help of water and later with sensors, but when both did not work she came up with Trashbot. She did a lot of market research like visiting dumpsites and landfills and even talking to waste management companies etc. She shares, “Before designing the machine, I knew it had to be compact, consuming less electricity, it should be de-centralised and placed in every ward of the city.” After spending over ` 1 crore to make this machine, Nivedha who did her chemical engineering from RV College of Engineering said, to run the machine on a daily basis, it would cost only Rs 1000. On what next for her, this avid book reader concludes sharing, “We have signed with the airport authorities in Chennai where we will be segregating and recycling 5000 kgs per day. We also have a project in Ayodhya in the Saraya River where we plan do a 50 tonne project.”
