The dark side of 24x7 Work Culture - the 24x7 Litter Culture. The once-a-day street sweeping designed for quiet residential areas cannot handle the software companies with 24x7 high-volume litter generation.
The street opposite the ThoughtWorks office in Koramangala 3rd Block has been a huge mess for years. Some people said 'enough is enough'. And this is what they did!!
"In this particular instance, the govt does its job of sweeping the street every morning at 9am. That doesn't really help if hundreds of employees of nearby companies litter continuously for the rest of the day. Think how demotivating this could be to the govt sweeper - despite doing what she is supposed to do, she gets blamed. Let's start getting real about who litters and who cleans up. "
Over 100 Ugly Indians and Defence Colony
residents (Decora -Defence Colony Residents Association) came together to execute dozens of spotfixes (mini and
mega) across the length and breadth of Defence Colony.
Spotfixing the wall of Chinmaya Hospital (of CMH Rd fame).
"The
guys who did this didn't need to be corporators to do this. Any of us
has the power to do this outside our homes - this is a government 'of
the people' after all. Each citizen is empowered to clean his own area -
it would be better if people started doing that and see the impact!" ~ TUI
Spotfixing a vacant plot, with a boundary wall, used as a garbage dump. An
attempt to make the wall 'looked after'. It has worked. No garbage has
come here the past 3 days and all the neighbours are happy with the
design. In fact, they were involved in the process of painting the wall. -TUI
Meet Mrs Kapoor, who is 90 years young. She
worked for 2 hours on Sunday to fix her street in Defence Colony. What
more inspiration do you need to fix your street? -TUI
"One
has to start somewhere. The good news is that 3 of the Ugly Spots fixed
in Defence Colony last Sunday have remained clean for a week now (most
residents had given up on their ever getting fixed) - and those that
used to create the
mess seem to have changed their daily mess-creating behaviour. TUI
believes in gradual incremental changes - silent work has been going on
behind-the-scenes the past week and there has been a very high level of
support (incl from those who created the mess)!" ~ TUI on FB on 21/4/2012
The Chinmaya Mission Hospital Bus parks here
every night - earlier it used to park on the roadside and block an
entire lane. Not only has the garbage problem been solved, a parking
spot has been created (see entire album for 'Before-After pictures).
"The
BBMP has used this point as a temporary dumping point for years - but
once they saw the work, the Inspector agreed to change his collection
methods. This is the way to deal with the BBMP - do not complain - just
go out there and do the work quietly, and they rise to the occasion and
reciprocate.
there were several households who dumped here everyday taking advantage
of the existing dump. TUI volunteers met each resident and aligned
their daily dumping schedule with the door-to-door pick up system (which
they were not using). There has been 100% compliance the past 2 days.
Sincere work is always recognised by all." ~ TUI on FB
The employees of the hotel Grand Mercure,
Bangalore came out to beautify the street outside their hotel.
This
vacant plot attracts garbage (note the street dogs), and the tree stump
adds to the ugliness of the area. This is a simple, low-cost way of
converting an ugly spot into something beautiful.
Meet the SpotFixers from Grand Mercure, Bangalore!
"Mar 30: Bagmane Lake cleaned of all cups by Sasken employees. Several dustbins installed, and clearing system setup. No enforcement imposed - deliberately.
April 20: Over next 3 weeks (or 15 work days), over 8,000 cups landed here. That works out to about 500 thrown into the lake per day! Daily sales of chai/coffee cups: 5000 (across 8 shops) - so about 10% of customers threw their cups in the lake. 90% do not.
April 23rd: Just 20 cups were found at 5pm. And promptly cleaned up. So the place looks totally clean on Tuesday morning.
Conclusion: Of 5,000 cups available to throw in the lake on Monday, just 20 got there - down from 500 earlier. About 96% of those who used to throw in the lake seem to have stopped. Let's see what happens on Tuesday. We suspect the number to be about 20 again. We think that's acceptable...for now.
In ANY group or society, around 5% of the members violate the rules EVEN when fines are enforced. In a self-governing situation, it is normally 10% or more.
TUI is very pleased with the 96% behaviour change. If this sustains at this level for the next 5 days, there is serious cause for satisfaction as a SpotFix well done.
While aiming for 100% conversion is desirable, we don't think it will happen overnight. Let's recognise dramatic change when we see it. "
~ TUI
Some questions answered by TUI on Facebook.
Q: How are the cups disposed off after cleaning? A: ALL the litter from the 12 shops is collected and kept in an 'unofficiaal dump' in the corner, from where it is picked up by the city authorities (BBMP), and taken to the Landfill sites. All the shopkeepers are technically illegal (as they are across India) so they do not get civic services from the city - however they have found an informal way of getting the garbage collected. We hope to find a way to formalise this. ~ TUI
Q: Hope the near by company people will respect the work done by Common Citizen. Where is BBMP ? A: As this entire stretch of shops is 'illegal' they get no formal BBMP support. This is the tragedy of urban India - essential services like street vendors are illegal and hence get no formal civic services support - is fact, this is the crux of the 'garbage problem' in cities like Bangalore. ~ TUI
Q: Please also provide dustbins there it looks like employees of the tech park themselves are dumping plastic cups? A: Yes, the tech park employees are 100% responsible for this mess. This stretch is used ONLY by employees who work in Bagmane, and come here for tea-and-cigarette breaks. This is why we are calling on them to come out and cleanup. It's a real shame that this is tolerated. While 80% of them are conscious and use the bins provided (yes, there are dozens of bins there now), there are still many who nonchalantly toss their trash into the lake. ~ TUI
