India produced around 62 million tonnes of garbage every year and 62% of it ends up in landfills. Since most of the disposed waste is recyclable, it is necessary for the waste to stay segregated till the recycling stage.Unsegregated waste makes it difficult for the derived value out of it during there cycling process as waste gets mixed in large quantities during thecollection process. Therefore, the problem must be solved at the roots of waste collection and handling in order to prevent the mixing of waste

The pushcarts used by the pourakarnikas (household garbage collectors) of Bengaluru are the first mediums for collection and transfer of waste. Through observation, it was noticed that the cart neither aids the process of carrying segregated waste nor is easy to handle it in terms of moving it, stopping etc. To understand more problems associated with the cart and see it from the perspective of waste management, field studies were conducted in and outside IIT campus. The studies include in understating the way waste is disposed of by the consumers, identification and handling of waste by the collectors, transferring the waste and the equipment used to transfer it from the source to the disposal unit. Studies also understand recycling and disposal of waste based on its type. Based on the study, the design brief was structured and ideation was done. The ideation included creating scaled mock ups to get a clear understanding of the concept. The agenda during ideation was not only to address the issue but also to make sure that the cart fits into the system. A 1:4 scale mock up model was created to get a better idea of the design of the cart. And addresses all the issues mentioned in the brief.

The cart addresses the problem of segregation of waste and its handling to make it more convenient for the collector to further segregate and generate the value out of waste. It also addresses the issue of handling waste that is hazardous upon its direct exposure to the collector

Working on this project gave me a detailed understanding of the process of waste management and numerous issues associated with it. These issues are opportunities for the designer to design better products or systems for improved functioning. It also gave an understanding of how to design a vehicle such that it fits into the system, address the problem and is also convenient to the user.

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• Push Cart for Municipal Solid Waste Collection......