IDP 2012

International Development Project – India

Written by: Mieke van Erk, Joeri Schouten, Magdalena Rola-Janicka and Stanley Hau

Table of contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................... 4 1.1 About Rajagiri School of Social Sciences ............................................................................................................ 4 1.2 About Sacred Heart College................................................................................................................................... 5 1.3 About Study Association Sefa ............................................................................................................................... 5 1.4 About De Pellikaan Foundation ........................................................................................................................... 5 1.5 About the project ...................................................................................................................................................... 5 1.6 Schematic overview of the project: ...................................................................................................................... 6

2 Problem description and objectives ............................................. 7 2.1 Problem description ................................................................................................................................................. 7 2.2 Objectives ................................................................................................................................................................... 8

3 Partner and stakeholder analysis ................................................ 10 3.1 Wealth out of Waste (collaboration Plan@Earth and ITC)......................................................................... 10 3.2 Kudumbashree ........................................................................................................................................................ 11 3.3 Kochi Corporation ................................................................................................................................................. 12 3.4 Dr. George Peter Pittappillil (Father Peter) ..................................................................................................... 12 3.5 Green Kerala Foundation ..................................................................................................................................... 12

4 General Findings ........................................................................ 13 4.1 News review ............................................................................................................................................................. 13 4.2 De Pellikaan’s update ............................................................................................................................................. 14

5 Solution ....................................................................................... 15 5.1 Kalamassery project ............................................................................................................................................... 15 5.2 Fort Kochi project .................................................................................................................................................. 17

6 Method ........................................................................................ 19 6.1 Process in the Netherlands ................................................................................................................................... 19 6.2 The trip ...................................................................................................................................................................... 20

7 Results ........................................................................................ 22 7.1 Kalamessery........................................................................................................................................................... 252 7.2 Fort Kochi ................................................................................................................................................................ 25 7.3 Thevara ...................................................................................................................................................................... 30 7.4 Concluding seminar............................................................................................................................................. 303 7.5 Developments at Rajagiri College .................................................................................................................... 304

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8 Personal Experiences ................................................................. 35 8.1 Mieke van Erk.......................................................................................................................................................... 35 8.2 Joeri Schouten.......................................................................................................................................................... 36 8.3 Magdalena Rola-Janicka ........................................................................................................................................ 38 8.4 Stanley Hau............................................................................................................................................................... 40 8.5 Ajith Kalapurackal .................................................................................................................................................. 41 8.6 Indu Aravand ........................................................................................................................................................... 41

9 References .................................................................................. 43 10 Appendix ................................................................................... 44

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1 Introduction 1.1 About Rajagiri College of Social Sciences Rajagiri College of Social Sciences is located in Kalamassery in the Kochi region. As mentioned in its mission statement, Rajagiri is highly concerned with facilitating comprehensive and integrated development of individuals. As a way of implementing this goal in their curriculum Rajagiri have created a project for young people to help improving the social situation of the local residents.

The project, called Rajagiri outREACH was started as a form of neighbourhood social work program, but has now evolved to a level of non-governmental organization with several offices, spread throughout whole Kerala state. One of their major activities is the promotion and implementation of biogas plants and vermin compost units in the region.

According to the policy of the Rajagiri College, every third year student has to get “practical experience” on Fridays and Saturdays. Also the institution has a well-developed program for creating awareness on waste working inside the campus. Both of these make Rajagiri College well equipped to fight the waste problem in their region.

During this summer we have worked with two students from Rajagiri College. This gives us a great opportunity to share ideas and improve the solutions that we want to implement. The culture significantly differs from the Netherlands and working with Indian students from Rajagiri College will be informative for us. Also the insight of young people who live in this region and experience the problems themselves will be extremely valuable for the project and us. We think Rajagiri College is a very important stakeholder for this project.

1.2 About Sacred Heart College Sacred Heart College is an Arts and Science College in Kerala. They offer undergraduate and postgraduate courses in English, Economics, Sociology, Commerce and more. According to the vision of Sacred Heart College: “Every student should possess a burning desire for true wisdom and a consuming love for fellow beings”. Father Prasant is a director of Sacred Heart College in Kochi One of the ways in which Father Prasant wants to the Sacred Heart College’s vision is to be implemented is through taking care of the environment, in order to

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provide others with good quality of living. He has managed to make the college environmentally friendly and introduced courses on sustainability and sustainable waste management. He is an appreciated person in the region. Father Prasant is a great supporter of solving the waste management problem and helped us on this project. Above all, we will be working together with students from this institution. We hope they can help us in developing the plan for solving waste problem of hotels.

1.3 About Study Association Sefa Sefa is the study association for Economics and Business Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Our goal is to enrich the lives of our 4,000 student members by organizing distinctive activities in four key domains: academic, career, international and social. Of the 4,000 members, over 200 are active in a committee, which makes Sefa the largest study association of Amsterdam and one of the biggest in the Netherlands. The active members organize more than 30 projects every year. These projects rang from informal drinks to selling books and from winter sports to large career events and inhouse days. For more info about Sefa, see www.sefa.nl.

1.4 About De Pellikaan Foundation De Pellikaan Foundation (Dutch for "the pelican") stimulates development projects by young people from different cultural backgrounds in order to let them experience the value of intercultural cooperation. De Pellikaan Foundation mediates between young people and projects by providing advice and financial support and by making her network available to participants. The foundation is continually looking for sponsors, for young people interested in intercultural experience, and companies and organizations that need enthusiastic young people for executing international, idealistic projects. For more information on de Pellikaan, see www.depellikaan.nl.

1.5 About the project The International Development Project 2012 focuses on the waste management problem in India. Eight ambitious students from India and The Netherlands are going to create a business model and will try to involve companies and people in order to improve waste management in India on a small scale. This project is a follow-up of the Sefa Research Project where three students from University of Amsterdam together with three students from Rajagiri College did research on waste management

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in India. They came up with two possible solutions to the waste management problem. The Dutch students are very eager to try and implement one of the proposed solutions and are travelling to India for four weeks to work together with Rajagiri and Sacred Heart students.

The team will be consisting of Mieke van Erk, Joeri Schouten, Magdalena Rola-Janicka and Stanley Hau from Amsterdam and Ashwin Mathew, Ajith Kalapurackal, Indu Aravind and Reenu Ann-Reji from Kochin. When the trip is over the Indian and Dutch students will have to make sure their results are sustainable: they will do this by giving advice and monitoring the implemented solution in every way possible. The Dutch students will organize a seminar in September to share their experiences with the Dutch community. This has the ultimate goal of inspiring new people to undertake a similar project.

1.6 Schematic overview of the project:

The cooperation is taking place for the second year, and the goal is to develop a long-term relationship, provided that all parties consider continuation of the project valuable.

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2 Problem description and objectives 2.1 Problem description In the last decades India was one of the most rapidly growing economies. The development of this country was powered by its economic liberalization as well as the worldwide trend towards globalization. The second most populated country in the world went through significant economic and social changes. One of the changes is the ongoing increase in consumption of products made of non-biodegradable components such as plastic and paper.

These trends resulted in detrimental consequences for India.

According to the research done by students of University of Amsterdam in collaboration with de Pellikaan and Rajagiri College, the waste problem is very intense in the region of Kochi. The situation is more critical by the lack of involvement from the government and the poor education of inhabitants concerning the processing of waste. Luckily, there are some organizations that promote awareness and try to implement sustainable solutions for solving the waste problem.

One of the main issues in this region is the lack of an organized and centralized supply chain of waste. A governmental initiative for women empowerment, Kudumbashree, commits one of its projects to waste collection.

Women receive a contribution from households in exchange for collecting and transporting their biodegradable waste to hubs. This is a very praiseworthy initiative, as it helps people to get rid of their waste and empowers women at the same time. There is a problem however with the Clean Kerala-project of Kudumbashree. Since the households have no option to dispose of non-biodegradable waste, the women are often bribed into collecting unsegregated waste. The biodegradable waste becomes polluted with plastics, which hampers the natural process of degradation in the biodegradable waste processing plant. There are alternative ways in which people manage their non-biodegradable waste such as burning it or dumping it on the streets, which obviously has a disastrous effect on the environment and public health.

There is a second negative consequence from the lack of options to get rid of non-biodegradable waste: the Bhramapuram waste processing plant is provided with the technology to treat biodegradable waste, but it is not working efficiently due to the disposal of both biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste in the plant. This all leads to a dangerous and unhealthy situation for the people working and living in the area where the plant is located.

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Waste problem

Awareness problem

Physical problem

Biodegradable waste

Non-biodigradable waste

2.2 Objectives Being aware of the influence that waste has on the environment, including soil and water pollution as well as animal and plant extinction, we are strongly concerned with how detrimental the waste problem is for the Kochi region, and for India in general. Adding to that, the waste may also have dangerous effects on human health and in the worst case scenario may become life threatening for the locals. Through our project we would like to lessen the negative impact of waste in the Kochi region in a sustainable way.

The last year’s Sefa Research Project managed to organize a meeting of various stakeholders to discuss the issue of waste and the solutions that seem feasible. The effects that the actions of last year’s team had on the local people have encouraged us to continue with implementing their solutions. The enthusiasm and interest in what our colleagues were doing gave us a very strong motivation to go on with the project and it is thanks to people asking for continuation of last year’s project, that we were able to take on this challenge.

Adding to that, we hold strong belief that by making change on a regional level and by developing local solutions to the problem, it will be possible to achieve sustainable progress in India. The positive developments will hopefully spread quickly through other regions.

Finally, we think international cooperation is the most interesting way of finding creative solutions and proper ways to work through problems. We are very enthusiastic to participate in an international project, which will teach us how to open our minds and exchange ideas. We see that by working together with Indian students we can gain new insights and achieve a much better sustainable solution.

Our main objectives are: 1. Help Rajagiri OutReach and Plan@Earth in strengthening the success of their projects 2. Inquire hotel managers on the possibility of waste pick-up from their companies and the solutions to be implemented to solve the waste management problem;

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3. Set up an awareness campaign in the Kalamassery region. A large reach can be achieved by incorporating the student and teaching community; the relationships of Rajagiri could help us in this matter; 4. To bring the stakeholders together for discussion of the current situation and possibilities for future developments in improving waste management in the area. This will be achieved by means of a wellplanned seminar which is attended by a large audience consisting of people from the Corporation of Cochin, the municipality, hoteliers and all other parties who have an interest in solving the waste management problem; 5. Benefit from mutual learning on the side of the Dutch as well as the Indian students.

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3 Partner and stakeholder analysis Basing on the research done last year as well as our own insight we have identified following partners and stakeholders: 3.1 Wealth out of Waste (collaboration Plan@Earth and ITC) Plan@Earth is located in the town Aluva in the Kochi region. It is a non-governmental organization, which “makes and executes plans aimed at protecting the earth�. Their prime motives include: spreading awareness, creating concern and working for the environment. They work with young volunteers in order to promote sustainable behaviour concerning handling of waste as well as use of fossil fuels. They approach schools and colleges through the awareness programs. To make their impact stronger they also organize competitions and contests to encourage young people to act responsibly with waste.

Plan@Earth plays a very crucial role in supply chain of waste in Aluva.

They have created a system, which ensures proper disposition of nonbiodegradable waste. Households are encouraged to segregate their waste and bring their plastics and papers to the collection hubs. Then, the waste is transported to the recycling plant used by Indian Tobacco Company (ITC), which pays for each kilo of received waste. The money is used to remunerate the people who bring in their properly segregated waste.

Wealth Out of Waste (WOW) is a collaboration between Plan@Earth and ITC. It is a recycling initiative that works towards spreading awareness about recycling, and encouraging people to segregate and dispose waste responsibly. WOW is an internationally recognized initiative by Bureau of International of Recycling. In this program, WOW reaches out to schools, institutions and homes through its awareness building teams, about source segregation of waste. After a stipulated period of time, the WOW team goes back to collect the waste kept aside and pays the schools, institutions and homes for the recyclables collected. While many countries have advanced systems of waste collection and regulations on source segregation, awareness in India regarding recycling and its benefits is low. The WOW program seeks to not only build awareness, but also to encourage people to segregate their waste at the source. This reduces the amount of waste disposed as landfills and provides industries with clean raw materials. For example, ITC's Kovai unit is exclusively dependent on recycled fibre, as are some machines in Bhadrachalam as well. By the end of 2011, ITC Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division would

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be using close to 210,000 tons of waste paper per annum. WOW helps ITC to collect this raw material in India.

Recycling of waste has huge environmental and economic benefits. Recycling of one ton of waste paper saves 17 trees and 7,000 gallons of water. Through WOW, ITC helps to deal with various issues like environment protection, reduction of global warming, improving green cover, reducing landfills, improving ground water quality, general health and hygiene and providing cost-competitive raw materials to industries. We see the WOW initiative as a clear indication of how our business model should look like.

3.2 Kudumbashree The Kudumbashree organization was set up in 1998 by the government of Kerala, in order to empower the poorest women in the society and it is now the largest woman-empowering organization active in India. Women in the organization are offered a wide variety of projects as well as courses and workshops for self-development.

A very important part of the offer of Kudumashree movement is the support for woman entrepreneurship through availability of micro financing.

Crucial for our project is their involvement in the “Clean Kerala Business”. The project has been considered a great opportunity for women, as it was supposed to give employment to over 30,000 women and provide them with a steady income. The idea was for the women to collect the biodegradable waste from households, the households are charged around 30Rs per month for this service. It is now the main, and in some regions the only, system of waste collection in Kerala.

There are some problems connected with this service, one of the issues is that the Kudumbashree women are not well educated on the problem of waste and often accept unsegregated waste that includes plastics or paper.

The other issue is that they do not have a regular schedule and so households do not know when to expect their waste to be picked. This is a major issue during the monsoon period since the waste becomes wet, making it very difficult to collect and process properly.

Nevertheless, there are some regions, where the waste supply chain based on Kudumbashree women is working very well. The city of Calicut in Kerala state has been awarded with “Green City Award” for exemplary work on the system of waste management. The city has managed to implement the plastic and paper collection by Kudumbashree, through providing 70% of households with two plastic bins. The women are provided with Cargo Auto rickshaws bins for collection of waste from the households and businesses. The women sell the waste they collect to recycling companies. Better education of Kudumbashree women in the Kalamassery region might help to improve waste management in that region.

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3.3 Kochi Corporation Kochi Corporation manages the city of Kochi. Serving the role of local government, Kochi Corporation is a very important stakeholder in achieving a good solution for the Kochi waste management system. Any action we are going to undertake should be in agreement with the government of municipality.

As indicated in the status quo analysis, the government of Kochi has taken some steps in order to solve the waste menace; however one can notice lack of effectiveness in their actions. By taking on various anti-waste initiatives and devoting part of its yearly budget to waste related problems, Kochi Corporation sends a positive signal to the locals and other parties concerned. The major issue is how these initiatives are going to be implemented.

3.4 Dr. George Peter Pittappillil (Father Peter) Father Peter is a founder of Renewable Energy Center Mithradham, a fully sustainable educational institution aimed at promoting renewable energy in India. The centre offers trainings on the solar energy generators and promotes the use of solar panels in production of the electricity. Next to that, Dr. Pittappillil is very active in promoting environmentally friendly behaviour, including proper waste handling. He has created a fund that supports local volunteers and people hurt by environmental pollution. He has created a plan for the clean society and encourages people to participate in it, by following the rules of eco-friendliness.

3.5 Green Kerala Foundation The foundation set by Thomas Vellaringattu, an Indian who travelled around the work and is very unhappy with the way in which one of the greenest states in the country is getting dumped with waste. The foundation is active in the promotion of sustainable waste behaviour. Among his ideas is to charge people for plastic shopping bags, create a volunteer team to clean the neighbourhoods as well as ensure better monitoring of people who dispose of waste illegally. Thomas Vellaringattu and his brother are active in raising awareness among their Indian and international friends by uploading pictures of the areas devastated by waste. Additionally there are very enthusiastic about cooperation.

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4 General Findings 4.1 News review The research by last year’s committee, indicated that there had been some projects and developments led by local stakeholders, which could be crucial for resolving the waste problem in the Kochi region. Almost one year after the Sefa Research Project has finished, it is very important taking into account the changes that occurred during this period. In order to prepare ourselves for implementing the solution we have done extensive research on this topic. In the review of the news and articles on the current waste situation in Kochi we have noted couple of interesting changes.

First, Kochi Corporation at the end of 2011 has decided to construct new facility for waste dumping. The idea is to build a new plant at the Bhramapuram site. A major candidate for putting the project in practice was Bayern Mercantile, who offered to set up the plant able to process 500 tonnes of waste a day. It would be using cold mineralization technique and would convert the waste to floor tiles and partition boards without emission of noxious gases or liquid pollution. Furthermore, the project would not need any financial support from the government and the plant would treat waste free of cost if the project were exempted from water and electricity charges. However, at the end of February 2012 the government declined to provide license to Bayern Mecantile, being afraid of strong resistance of the local residents.

It is worth noting that Kochi Corporation has planned anti-waste policies in its budget for 2012-2013, which was agreed upon at the end of March. Among these is the substantial sum that is dedicated to setting up a new solid waste management plant in mode of private-public partnership. Part of these funds will be used on renovating the existing plant and government hopes that processing of piled up waste could be completed shortly.

In last months, the government has also been testing new techniques to manage the biodegradable waste. At the beginning of April, Kochi held tests of enzyme-method provided by UK-based company. The enzymes were supposed to reduce the odour as well as speed up the decomposition process. The Corporation wishes to implement this solution to clean the contaminated canals and sewage systems.

Next to that, there are a couple of non-governmental initiatives that have been introduced in the last months.

Among those is the Corporate Service Corps program launched by IBM in Kochi. Its team will work together with other NGOs on developing sustainable solutions for rapidly growing city. Amongst others,

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they will try to conceptualize solid waste management system for Kochi.

Above that, there is the Yasoram Charitable Trust, which introduced a project to treat organic waste and promote organic farming in the city. Their initiative has been planned together with residential associations and will be implemented by around 5000 households. The other initiative, called “Zero Waste�, introduced by Better Kochi Response Group promotes the practice of disposing bio-degradable waste at its source by setting up biofertilizers in every household.

There are some positive trends in waste situation in Kochi region, and we believe that all these initiatives and projects can be seen as an indication that the awareness about the waste problem is growing. The increased awareness will help us implementing and extending our solution.

4.2 De Pellikaan’s update During the visit by members of De Pellikaan Foundation in Kochi there have been some updates on current situation in the region. One of the most important insights has been discovered through meeting with Plan@Earth. Members of this non-profit organization have mentioned that there are some problems with their operations. Plan@Earth is willing to share with us the details of their business plan, together with the flaws that they have noticed so far. While in India we will be able to learn more about the issues and there might be a need for focusing on improving the current business model of Plan@Earth.

Adding to that, members of De Pellikaan have noticed an itching problem of hotels in the touristic area of Kochi, namely Fort Kochi. Through conversations with one of the hotel managers and some local inhabitants they have come to conclusion that there is a need for setting up a system in which hotels can manage their waste.

Hotel managers are aware of the waste problem, and see it as a big disadvantage for the tourism industry in the region. They are willing to cooperate in order to improve the situation and they have an apparent incentive to pursue a good environmental practice as well as encourage the local community to act sustainably.

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5 Solution 5.1 Kalamassery project 5.1.1 Micro solution The micro solution last year’s committee proposed consists of an awareness campaign together with an extension of the subhub in Aluva to Kalamassery. The previous committee found that the micro solution satisfies the following points: 1.

It is affordable

2.

It starts on a local scale, making it easier to control

3.

It is easily extended to other localities

4.

It makes use of an existing model or existing distribution channels

For a waste management model to be effective, we have to take three aspects into account. These are economic, environmental and social aspects (Morissey and Browne, 2004). Most waste management models already take economic and environmental aspects into account, but few consider social aspects. Environmental aspects will be satisfied: because now any formal waste removal is absent, any solution that makes people able to get rid of their waste is an improvement. The second and fourth point makes it more likely that the solution is socially acceptable.

The Points of Action the Sefa Research Project team has written down in order to implement the micro solution are the following: 1. Create a communication line with The Netherlands (Rajagiri College) 2. Update the relevant parties about collecting plans of papers and clean plastics in Kalamassery 3. Update Rajagiri about segregated collection (at the moment the paper and plastic for Plan@Earth is not yet integrated) 4. Put forward a plan for collecting actions for children 5. Create a meeting for all awareness persons* to get the campaigns on one line 6. Set up a meeting with the relevant actors to negotiate agreements with the Kudumbashree 7. Get an update about the current awareness planning / agenda 8. Find out if Plan@Earth has a back-up plan when ITC is not willing to participate. * The actors for creating awareness are: Father Peter, Father Prasant (and the Sacred Heart College), Plan@Earth, Rajagiri College and Kochi University of Science and Technology, see for an analysis of their input under stakeholder analysis.

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5.1.2 IDP 2012 solution implementation Our implementation consists of two parts, trying to create more awareness amongst young people at local schools and trying to reduce the physical waste problem. We want to achieve this goal on a local scale to increase the likelihood of success and we hope it can create a snowball effect amongst other local towns. A key element in our approach is to create a solution together with the local stakeholders so they can continue implementing the solution after we have returned to Holland. The local scale was we want to implement our solution will be Kalamassery, a small town consisting of 69.000 people near Aluva. Kalamassery is very suitable because Plan@Earth is very active in the neighbouring town Aluva and the Rajagiri College is located in Kalamassery.

5.1.2a Awareness problem Wealth out of Waste is the successful collaboration between Plan@Earth and ITC. Our goal is to support them in making a waste management awareness campaign together witch Rajagiri OutReach, a part of the Rajagiri College that is actively involved in different kinds of social projects in the Kalamassery Region. In order to achieve this goal, we have to convince Plan@Earth to expand their activities from Aluva to Kalamassery. We have to pick suitable ways to spread the awareness concerning waste management to colleges, universities or high schools.

5.1.2b Physical problem Plan@Earth and Kudumbashree are currently not working together in Kalamassery. We

Plan@Earth

will try to let Plan@Earth expand their activities from Aluva and Kalamassery to organize a waste management program in Kalamassery together with the Kudumbashree women based on their existing business model in Aluva.

Kudumbashree

1. Plan@Earth creates a waste management program in Kalamassery 2. Plan@Earth will work together with the local Kudumbashree women who will do the actual waste picking and segregate the waste into paper

Paper and plastic

Biodegradble waste

and plastic and biodegradable waste 3. The Kudumbashree women will bring the waste to the waste plant

Rajagiri college

Waste plant

4. Plan@Earth will check if the waste is properly segregated and pays the Kudumbashree women for the amount of waste they picked 5. The paper and plastics are being picked up by ITC who pays Plan@Earth per kilo of waste they provide

Paper and plastic

Biodegradable waste

ITC

Rajagiri

6. The Rajagiri college can process the biodegradable waste in their own waste processing plants Plan@Earth will work together with the local Kudumbashree women who will do the actual waste picking and segregate the waste into paper and plastic and biodegradable waste

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5.2 Fort Kochi project After the update by De Pellikaan Foundation and their encouragement for us to work on the problem of hotels in Fort Kochi, we have developed a basic plan of action for solving this issue.

Contact students of Sacred Heart College for collaboration on this part of the project We have decided to work in collaboration with students of Sacred Heart College, in addition to the Rajagiri College students, located in this particular district. We expect them to give us a better insight into the way in which the community in Fort Kochi is organized. The specific knowledge and ideas they have for this particular area might help us in achieving our goals more effectively. Adding to that, we think that since they are currently living in this area, they are an important stakeholder and are much more motivated to improve its quality.

Set up contacts with hotel managers In our next step we will try to contact hotel managers who work in Fort Kochi. We will arrange meeting with the hotel managers to seek their opinion and ideas about the waste management problem in Fort Kochi. At the same time we will try to motivate them to take an action that might benefit their businesses. We hope to set up a contact with some of the hotel before the departure to India and continue on approaching them in first week of our stay in Kochi.

Research the situation in Fort Kochi and the possibilities of solving the problem While in Kochi we hope to find out more about current situation of the hotels and its surroundings. After the meetings with the hotels managers we hope to get a better idea, about a possible solution for the waste management problem in Fort Kochi. Above that we know that we need to discover what are the attitudes of the managers and possibilities of creating a common waste management network.

Organize a meeting which will gather hotel managers who are interested in pursuing a waste management policy Both infrastructure and the willingness of the parties will be assessed. Above that we the data on the amounts of waste created and future advantages of having a clean area will be analysed. Next we think that brainstorming the feasibility of some ideas will help us to choose an optimal solution with support from the hotels.

Negotiate with ITC on extending the Wealth Out of Waste initiative to hotels in Fort Kochi area.

One of our raw ideas so far is to negotiate with ITC in order to extend the Wealth Out of Waste initiative. We believe that by creating a subhub in one of the bigger hotels and organizing a timely transportation we might achieve a good system for managing hotels waste. Also, the payments from the waste might be enough to cover wages of the employees who might be employed for the purpose of segregating and transporting the waste.

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Unfortunately we also see one possible problem with that solution. As we have learned recently ITC is also one of the local leaders in hospitality business and owns a number of luxury hotels. This might bring a conflict of interests in the company itself and create some difficulties for us to pursue that solution.

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6 Method 6.1 Process in the Netherlands The start of the process held reading the research report written by last year's committee. We started brainstorming and came to the preferred solution: the micro-solution. Thereafter we started doing literature research on the status quo and recent developments in India. We mainly did this through reading online newspaper articles and obtaining information from local parties.

Next to that we started up communication with all the stakeholders in India: Rajagiri College, Plan@Earth, the Chamber of Commerce in Kerala and Father Peter. We checked whether Rajagiri College was willing to collaborate with us, fortunately they were. We updated Plan@Earth on the fact that we will be doing the follow-up on last year’s Sefa Research Project. Unfortunately this contact started of difficult due to illness of one of the board members of Plan@Earth, but they agreed on collaborating with us again. The Chamber of Commerce in Kerala and Father Peter were updated on the fact that we are coming to India in the summer.

We also contacted the waste processing company VAR in the Netherlands to get a good idea on how a waste management process should look like. Due to our contacts with Sweder van Wijnbergen, we got to know Hannet de Vries. She has set up different innovative waste transport systems in the Netherlands from scratch so we hope to learn a lot from her on the difficulties and opportunities of setting up waste transport.

To be best prepared for the communicating with the project’s stakeholders in India, we will be following training by Bert van Hijfte. He did the training for last year’s Sefa Research Project as well, and this yielded very good results. This training is important, as it will help us to understand the differences in communication and doing business between Holland and India. Understanding these differences is extremely important since the outcome of the project will depend on how well we will be working together with the Indian stakeholders.

During the time of the research, we helped organizing an event for the friends of de Pellikaan Foundation. This event will make sure publicity is generated and awareness for the foundation will increase. The event has taken place the 3rd of June and included a range of speakers followed by some snacks and drinks.

After this, we will focus on arranging the meetings with the stakeholders for when we are in India. As soon as the project plan is finalized, we will involve the Indian students. We will send them (a short version of) our project proposal and ask them for input and their thoughts on the solution of the problem. They might already be able to meet Plan@Earth to inquire about how we can help them. This way we hope to make sure they are actively participating in the project. The project will benefit from it, as the Indian students probably

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better understand the problem in their country, what solution could work and what the pitfalls are.

6.2 The trip First week: - Working together with the students from Rajagiri and Sacred Heart College to discuss the proposal and decide on an appropriate plan of action. If possible: identify the educational institutes for the awareness campaign and the hotels we want to do the interviews; - Meeting with Plan@Earth to find out how we can help them; - Meeting at Chamber of Commerce to see whether there are any additional parties interested in our project and if there is possibility to organize a seminar; - Meeting with Mrs Mary David for some critical opinions and an update of developments since De Pellikaan’s visit.

Second week: - Identify the parties who are going to collaborate with us on the project and arrange the meeting with this select group of people to set up waste transport. Analyse their business model and look for improvements and search for intensifying the cooperation with Plan@Earth and ITC; - Meet Mr. Sohan to present him our ideas and discuss their feasibility; - Approaching Kudumbashree for discussion over their place in new model; - Interview hotel managers.

Third week: - Finalize formal arrangements and give training for awareness campaign; - Training on the importance of waste issue for Kudumbashree; - Together with students of Rajagiri and Sacred Heart College further analyse the solution of Fort Kochi hotels based on the interviews with hotel managers and confront it with those most interested managers; - Seminar to be held.

Fourth week: - Start of waste transport business in Kalamassery; - Present an idea for solving problem of waste in hotels, start off with formal arrangements, and suggest cooperation between hotels to continue with implementing a plan; - Awareness campaign and round up. A concluding event could include the “clean your neighbourhood� contest and will hopefully be organized in collaboration with all the stakeholders; - Evaluate results of the project and how to go from there: describe how to make sure the results

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will be sustainable and how to monitor and spread our experiences we had in the project.

6.3 Output, results and follow up In the four weeks we will visit India, we hope to have extended the waste transport hub to the Kalamassery region. Next to that, we will have organized an extensive awareness campaign that will inform the citizens of Kalamassery on the hazards of waste and how good waste disposal should look like. Because we will give this training to a couple of people who will perform this training for a number of people, the reach of the awareness campaign will be enormous. We will support the awareness campaign by spreading posters at universities and other public places.

We will stay in touch with the students from Rajagiri College and Sacred Heart College. They will keep contact with the stakeholders for us and continue the vision we created together for this region. And they will follow the development of Kochi concerning the waste management and give us updates about it.

We will write the results and experiences of our trip in a report. To communicate these experiences and make sure new people will be inspired, we will organize a seminar. This will probably take place in September at CREA (cultural institute associated with the University of Amsterdam) where we will share the results achieved in India. We will screen a documentary on India and Sweder van Wijnbergen will speech on development economics. This way we hope to make sure new students will be inspired and the transparency of de Pellikaan Foundation will be increased, which will ensure the continuity and growth of the foundation.

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7 Results 7.1 Kalamassery During our research in Kalamassery, we came up with some main findings: 

Waste is generally considered as a big problem



Solutions are available

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Lack of awareness about the solutions

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Great incentives to segregate waste are available

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Physical and awareness problem solutions are not integrated

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No actual long term vision/management

Because being in India for only four weeks we faced a substantial time constraint. Therefore the implementation of our solutions should take place on a very small scale. It should also face both the awareness as the physical problem. This is because only if people see how waste management can be useful they will be motivated to put it into practice. The locations we choose to start a pilot of our project in were schools and residential associations.

7.1.1 Residential associations As we have learnt from Indian students, residential associations play central role in social and cultural aspects of lives of people in Kerala. Residents Associations celebrate national and religious holidays and its members are invited to weddings of other neighbors. Above that, RAs meet every couple of weeks to discuss the most important issues in the area. Unfortunately, most often these don’t lead to them taking any action, but for people of Kerala it is very important to be able to speak up their opinions.

As we understood the importance of residential associations in Kochi we have decided to approach this organization with our ideas. We hoped that relatively small area and group of people, who is quite integrated and close, might be a good target for our micro-solutions.

We have met some of the members and asked them what do they recon to be the biggest problem, and what would they do about it if they had the power to act. The discussion with one of the members helped us a lot and showed that many people in an area very close to Rajagiri outREACH are not aware of the possible solutions for biodegradable waste. Furthermore some of the members as well as chairman of the Residents Association said that they would be interested in implementing some sort of solution for non-biodegradable waste as well.

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The suggestions we made consisted of three parts: 1. We have organized an awareness meeting, during which we instructed them about proper handling of waste.

During the meeting we presented them with possibilities for solving the problem of biodegradable waste as well as an idea for how to handle their plastic and paper waste. We have highlighted the importance of segregation and how this can be profitable.

2. We have set up a contact between the chairman of RA and scrap merchant who said he would be interested in buying the waste from the people. Since he was only able to collect the waste if it was around 500kg we suggested to organize a central point of collection where every once in a month, the residents will be able to bring their plastic, paper, metal etc. and get paid according to the amount they bring. The chairman of residents association promised to supply some of the poorest households with big bags where people could gather their waste and store them until a collection day.

3. We have informed the members of the association about possible solutions for bio-degradable waste. The chairman of the RA decided to produce compost-pipe from PCV pipes and provide it for a very cheap price to some of the smallest and poorest households in the area. Adding to that Ajith and Reenu presented the solutions avail-able through Rajagiri outREACH, such as: bio-gas plants, compost-pipes, vermin composting plants, etc. They have explained the workings of this machinery and in-formed them about the costs.

Above that, we decided to put all the possibilities for residential associations into an information document. We thought that having a document which states all of the possible solutions, the costs and possibilities of subsidies is going to be handy for spreading the solution to other RAs. 7.1.2 Schools For schools we also made a document about the easily accessible waste management possibilities. We gave a presentation to children to two schools in the near surroundings of Rajagiri. After these presentations we convinced the school principals of participating in some solutions we were able to offer them based on their needs.

The physical waste problem is reduced by providing schools with low cost disposal solutions like waste bins for biodegradable; plastic and paper waste so that the waste can be segregated properly. After this has been done, biogas plants or bio compost plants can be installed at the schools so that they can effectively manage their biodegradable waste at source so it can be turned into cooking gas or compost. The segregated plastic and paper can be reused effectively or can be sold to the local waste merchants.

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By doing this students can actually see, that being aware of what to do with waste is very useful if it is being processed properly. The goal of this project is to let the waste management model at the school be an example to the students and to get them motivated to practice it in their own community. Rajagiri, University of Amsterdam and Sacred Heart College will there by provide awareness campaigns at the schools and nearby communities to educate them on how to manage waste in general and on how to use the provided waste management facilities effectively. A more detailed overview of all the possibilities is shown below.

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7.2 Fort Cochin The team consisting of Ashwin, Indu, Mieke and Stanley have researched and analyzed the area of Fort Cochin as part of the waste management project between Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, Sacred Heart College, de Pellikaan Foundation and Study Association Sefa.

7.2.1 Corporation of Cochin On Thursday 26 July we had a meeting with Mr. Sohan from the Corporation of Cochin and he is the chairman of ward no. 1 in Fort Cochin. He described the role of Corporation of Cochin in the waste management issue, the plans of the corporation and his personal view on the situation. The Corporation of Cochin is taking several initiatives to stimulate the solution for waste management issues in Cochin. They are currently providing 90% subsidy for biodegradable waste treatment plants for households and 50% for institutions. Besides this, they are also picking all the waste from door-to-door and transport biodegradable waste to Brahmapuran, paper to ITC and plastic to a company in Chennai.

They are running a pilot in Fort Cochin (ward no. 1 and 27) to solve the waste management issues, the so-called ‘zero waste management’ project. They provide all the households with two segregation bins, one for biodegradable and one for paper and plastic. Besides this they also hired streetsweepers to clean the streets every day.

The biodegradable waste in the city center is difficult to manage, because the households do not have enough space to set up a biogas plant. Even sharing a biogas plant between several households is not an option, because of the imbalance of the quantity putting into the biogas plant and usage is high. Households do not get the incentive to segregate, because other households also use ‘their’ share of the gas.

The second problem of managing the waste is collecting the waste. It is not easy to collect the waste from all the houses and transporting it to one central locating. The roads are filled with cars, rickshaws, motorcycles and scooters making the transportation from location A to B with a truck really difficult.

7.2.2 Ward meeting Fort Cochin On the same day we had a ward meeting in ward no. 1. Mr. Sohan is the chairman of the ward. We presented the project and ourselves. After the meeting we had a group discussion where one person named that the smell in Fort Cochin is troublesome. The waste gets picked up every morning, but due to the heat the fish leftovers smells really bad and affects the beach area at Fort Cochin. He asked for our advice on the situation. We advised him to arrange a container where the top can be shut so the smell does not get out. As space is a problem according to him the container can also be underground as used in Amsterdam.

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7.2.3 Hotels in Fort Cochin At first we arranged meetings with several hotel managers to understand the current situation of Fort Cochin.

Fort Cochin is a tourist area, with a relatively large percentage of tourists originating from US and Europe. The number of hotels is great and they are, according to us, benefitting from a clean and tourist-friendly neighborhood. Also, the hotels have followed the developments concerning waste management for a period of time and hold valuable information for our solution.

7.2.3a Koder House The first visit was with the owner of Koder House on Saturday 28th of July at 17:00h. The hotel manager gave some advice to us: instead of going for the big solution, we should try focusing on a micro plan and spread it using the media. There are several initiatives from the Corporation of Cochin concerning waste management, such as a project called ‘Zero Waste Management’ in the Fort Cochin area; ward no. 1 and 27. The hotel manager does not think the project will sustain long. The streets are being cleaned and garbage picked up by the Corporation of Cochin. The tax is currently 20% for hotels and the government wants to implement a special hotel tax on top of this.

He has set up a private initiative for cleaning the beach by paying 5,000 rupees per month. A friend from UK with a travel agency helped him fund it. For three years long the beach was being cleaned. He stopped with this initiative, because the beach is the mouth of the sea. Each evening the beach would again be flooded with trash coming from households, boats and companies. And there was no way to throw away the waste picked up from the beach. It is expensive for one hotel to pay for the cleaning the beach, but if the local hotels are willing to contribute it will be possible. For the hotels to work together the counselor has to be approached. The counselor knows the locals hotel managers quite well and he might be a good initiator for getting all the hotels involved. We did see a problem with this: in order for such a project to succeed the counselor and Mr. Sohan would have to work together. Since the counselor and Mr. Sohan are from different political parties and have different views on solving this problem, they are probably not willing to engage in such collaboration. Especially with the limited time we had available, we decided to try to find other ways to lessen the waste problem in Kochi.

Koder House started a project to manage the waste created by the hotel. The biodegradable waste is managed by using the biogas plant, and biodegradable waste not suitable for the biogas plant is being incinerated.

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The non-biodegradable waste is being segregated and taking by the Corporation of Cochin. There is currently no land to dump the waste it and no place where it can be collected.

7.2.3b Brunton Boatyard The second meeting was with Brunton Boatyard manager, Radhakirshna Shenoi, on Tuesday 31st of July at 11:00h.

Brunton Boatyard is part of a group of hotels named CGearth. They have three main policies; indulge with the culture, preserve the environment and local resources. The construction of the hotel uses the resources locally available by using traditional methods and design. CGearth tries to reduce the use of electricity and the generation of waste. Examples of this were recycling newspaper for invitation cars and envelopes, and instead of using plastic shampoo bottles they are using refillable ceramic bottles.

He does think that people are becoming more aware about waste management. Especially in Fort Cochin being a tourist area. He finds the current tax of 20 percent already high and do not want to ask the customer for more money. The hotel manager is even more skeptical about asking a higher price due to the possible hotel tax from the government.

7.2.3c Fort Muziris The third and final hotel meeting was with Fort Muziris on Wednesday 1st of August at 11:00h. The hotel manager was quite interested in buying a biogas plant. He is currently burning the biodegradable waste and the other waste is being picked up by the Kudumbashree to the Corporation of Cochin. He asked us about local incineration in the Netherlands. Dutch households are not allowed to incinerate their waste due to the poisonous gasses coming from the incineration. The non-recyclable waste collected is brought to an incinerator where the heat coming from the incineration is turned into energy.

The solution according to him is building a burning facility, a non-harmful method. This way the immense pile of waste in Cochin can be processed and from there on doing it the right way. The right persons need take the segregated waste. The problem according to him is the awareness. He mentioned the culture as a cause of the lack of awareness. People should think more about the damage the waste is causing to their environment. It is not yet in the Indian culture to use the waste. He thinks that all the households should have vermin pots, so they will learn and experience the value of waste. He supports the use natural sources to run his business.

After meeting with the hotel managers they find not mainly the logistics the problem, because they

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are looking and implementing methods to reduce the creation of waste. According to them one of the main problems of the waste management is lack of awareness. They do not believe that the hotels should pay extra for cleaning the environment, because this will not stop the waste from washing upon the shore. A hotel tax will not be the solution to the problem, because cleaning the beach several times a day does not solve the problem of the new inflow of waste from the lakes.

Since the hotels we visited already had pretty good waste management systems in place and pointed to the main problem being the lack of awareness with citizens, we decided to focus on the collaboration with schools to bring awareness at a young age.

7.2.4 Schools in Fort Cochin Following the results from the meetings with hotel managers we visited the schools in Fort Cochin to the find out what the awareness campaigns at schools are and effects from the campaigns are. There was a big awareness campaign were 250 environment master students were trained to give presentations at school about waste management. Every school was supposed to keep record of the food, paper and plastic waste circling in the school.

We asked for the report at all the schools but they told us they did not keep a record. We tried to give presentations to all the schools, but two denied our offer because the environment master students gave presentations before.

7.2.4a Schools visited in Fort Cochin 1. Government High School Central Kalvathi 2. Fathima Girls High School 3. Santa Cruz School (1 presentation) 4. St. John Brito School (2 presentations)

7.2.4b General findings 

Corporation of Cochin initiated a project to collect plastic waste from schools where in an agency appointed by the Corporation collects the plastic waste brought from the houses of the students. The project is not running currently in the three schools except for the Government HS Central Kalvathi.



Most of the schools burn the plastic and paper waste generated in the schools. A project was longed by Santa Cruz School with the partnership of the Sreeshakthi paper mill and the neighboring schools the project did run successfully initially but it no longer exists. o Observation during the interaction with the principals it was revealed that only one

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waste bin was in each of the classes in which the students dumped all the waste and hence the mixing of paper, food and plastic. The water made the recycling of the paper difficult, which may be the reason for the failure of the project. 

There is no segregation happening in the school. The primary reason being the lack of separate bins for segregation.



The Corporation of Cochin did promise to provide the schools with bins for segregation. This is not yet done and the collection of the plastic is also a flop.

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The St. John Brito School is interested in installing a biogas model for the management of food waste.

7.2.5 Opportunities in Fort Cochin We found that at least some of the hotel managers are environmentally aware and are willing to spend money for a clean Cochin. Their main worry was that since awareness is lacking, their efforts in cleaning the Fort Cochin area are useless. We think that, if some initiatives are put in place, like the awareness campaigns at schools and the start of the plastic collection by the Corporation of Cochin, the hotel managers can (again) be convinced that cleaning the beach is worthwhile. To research this opportunity, a meeting could be organized. This meeting should preferably be organized, or at least supported, by the counselor and the hotel managers of all major hotels should be invited. If each of them puts in a relatively small amount of money, this can provide the opportunity of a truly clean Fort Cochin. We think that this will benefit Kerala tourism in the long term.

Media attention for this initiative could be generated by involving the B.tech students of Rajagiri College. Just before we left Cochin, they informed Mr. Antoni of the fact that they would be willing to spend one day for a good cause. The number of the students willing to participate is around 500. A festive day could be organized, in which the students help cleaning the beaches. This initiative would also underline the image of Rajagiri College as a socially involved college, create awareness and promote the project. Due to the short period of time we were not able to make use of this opportunity.

The two weeks we had left for the Fort Cochin we had to prioritize on the project objectives. The situation of Fort Cochin is still at its starting point and to make a difference and starting something will take more time. At the same time the counselors of the two wards were not available for a meeting and arranging a meeting with the schools and hotels managers was not possible.

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7.3 Thevara We shifted our focus to Thevara where Sacred Heart College is active. This is a familiar area to work in after staying the hostel of Sacred Heart for a period of time, working with two Sacred Heart students and Father Prasant who has been supporting the project. We used the same method as in Fort Cochin and visited all the schools in Thevara.

7.3.1 General findings 

None of the schools have received training from environment masters;

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The Corporation of Cochin plan to give different bins for segregation of waste yet not implemented;

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The plastic collection is not running;

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Initially Plan@Earth was collecting paper now it is not that frequent and they are currently only collecting from Sacred Heart High School;

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The schools under the Sacred Heart Monastery are managing food waste as food for the animals or its being put into the Sacred Heart Canteen biogas plant;

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The majority of the schools, the government old age home and the home for handicapped burn the plastic and paper waste;

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The Sacred Heart Public School does not believe the biogas plant is the solution for handling food waste.

He mentioned that Corporation of Cochin is promoting the (bacteria/enzyme) solution at different schools to handle the biodegradable waste. The smell coming from composting is similar to wine making it very accessible for the public. The price for 1 litre of bacteria is 285 rupees and adding water can make it up to 20 litres of solution. They are currently working on to create these bacteria themselves.

7.3.1a Schools visited in Thevara Institutions visited 

St. John’s LP school

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Sacred Heart LP school

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Sacred Heart HSS school

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Sacred Heart HS school

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Sacred Heart Public School

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Fisheries school

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Government home for physically handicapped

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Government old age home

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Sacred Heart College

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7.3.2 Solutions formulated for Thevera 

Using the NSS Volunteers from Sacred Heart College training can be given.



A model waste management system can be developed first in the Sacred Heart College and can be extended to schools of same management if it works it can be expanded.

7.3.3 Proposal of a Waste Management Model in Thevara Creating a sustainable model for waste management. This model can Posters should be hung in class rooms and close to bins

Build relationship with paper and plastic vendors

first be implemented at Sacred Heart College, Thevara, Cochin. If the results are satisfactory, the model can be extended to other schools and Sacred Heart College can function as an example on how to manage waste to other schools.

Since there are a lot of different dimensions to the waste problem, it

Awareness campaigns should be organized

Provide segregation bins at central points in the school

is important that an integrated system is developed to tackle the main points of concern. The integrated plan includes four focus points:

7.3.3a Segregation bins Segregation bins should be provided in the school in which students and teachers have the possibility to prevent littering and segregate waste at source. The preferred option is a system of four segregated bins: food, paper, plastic and ‘other’ waste. The food and other waste bins will be put nearby the washrooms or main halls and the paper and plastic bins in central point where most people walk by. The biodegradable waste bin makes it easy to bring the waste to the biogas plant. The paper and plastic bins make sure the (clean) paper and plastic can be collected and sold, and the ‘other’ bin will make sure people will not litter due to lack of a suitable bin. It should be made clear what the differences between the bins are by using different colored and by using stickers or posters (food, paper, plastic, other).

7.3.3b Awareness campaign The school should have an awareness campaign at least once a month. The preferred option is to create a group of students with a supervising teacher at the school who is responsible for the awareness campaign. This group should consist of the higher grade students, who organize a presentation to the younger students, teachers and cleaners. This group should also ensure continuity by interesting the younger students for this club. Besides giving a presentation the group can of a program to keep people being aware of segregation and not

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‘forgetting’ about it. It could be a competition or contest for the student who has the best idea for reducing or recycling waste, or creating the best artwork by reusing waste.

7.3.3c Collecting the waste The processing of paper and plastic is a potentially valuable business. However, parties are only interested to buy clean paper and plastic. It is therefore very important that only clean paper and plastic is offered to the waste collectors. This should be underlined during the awareness campaigns as well as in the posters. Only then it is possible to find a party interested to buy paper and plastic from the schools. In this proposal there is a preference for the school to work together with independent paper and plastic vendors. The vendors are locally active neutralizing the travel distance. Sacred Heart College has a vendor picking up the segregated waste.

7.3.3d Posters To remind people of the importance of segregating waste and the detrimental consequences of littering, posters should be hung in the class rooms and nearby waste bins.

These posters could also provide information to the students using the college in the weekends so they are also aware of the fact that waste generated should be segregated. The posters can show what the effects are of not segregating waste. This can be effects on nature (number of tree cut down) or what the waste is used for (gas, road, chairs). We hope to create the awareness that waste can be valuable.

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7.3.4 Plan of action The first thing we did is present this model to the principal of Sacred Heart College, Father Prasant. After gaining the approval of Father Prasant we talked to the nature club of Sacred Heart to find more people to help us with the campaign and making sure that students will continue this project after we leave. They were really enthusiastic about the campaign and starting brainstorming to promote this project further. They decided on creating a promotion movie to create awareness for segregation waste. By walking around the school we took several pictures and we wanted to find out what the necessities are for starting the campaign. The first thing we noticed is that the bins are placed in odd places where not many people notice. The color usage was also confusing. We need to buy new segregation bins and design stickers to make clear what the bins are for.

After this we created our own posters to make clear what the awareness campaign is about and providing them with extra information. Also, the poster will keep reminding the students the importance of segregating waste when students walk by the posters every time. The students from the nature club gave a speech for announcing the awareness campaign in the main hall. The drama club even performed a sketch about waste management.

After the announcement we gave presentations to all the classes to tell them the importance of segregating waste.

That was our last day in Kochi and the students in India are currently monitoring the developments of Sacred Heart College for us. They told us that they got back several days ago and it is going well.

7.4 Concluding seminar In order to conclude the project the committee and de Pellikaan decided to organize a seminar. The event took place on 14th September 2012 in CREA Theater. One of the main goals was to share our experiences and present the undertakings mentioned above. We have aimed at informing stakeholders, who have been supporting us throughout the project, about the progress we made in India as well as on our ideas concerning future actions.

On top of that we tried to bring some additional perspective into the meeting by inviting two professors from University of Amsterdam who focus on Development Economics and used to work in the developing countries.

We were interested in their views on usefulness of such projects and good practices for undertaking them.

The seminar turned out to be an interesting event. We began with presenting about our experiences in India in general: the culture, the climate and the people and how we experienced coping with stuff a country that is

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so different from Holland. After that we described the actions we have undertaken while working in Kochi and what results those yielded. Then we generalized our experiences and results and tried to give some recommendations on how to set up a charity project.

The next point in the seminar was the speeches given by members of de Pellikaan. Han presented the philosophy of de Pellikaan: letting young people experience other cultures by working together on a project in an international setting. Hugo told something on the philosophy of working together in intercultural teams: the results that intercultural teams bring about can either be disastrous or extremely good, it depends on the ability of the team to create a new, shared team culture. Thereafter Menno Pradhan, teacher at the VU and the University of Amsterdam, evaluated our project and gave his views on charity and how it should be organized nowadays. He was especially pleased with the fact that we worked together with locals, and that we asked how we could help instead of sticking to a predetermined plan we set up ourselves. Last up on the program was a discussion panel, which featured Han, Hugo, Joeri and mr. Pradhan. The subject for discussion was: Countries like India don’t need development aid any more. A discussion emerged in which the public also participated. After the seminar there was the possibility to have a drink to exchange ideas on the project and development aid in general.

7.5 Developments in Kochi from Rajagiri College After the students project, we were busy with organizing a Vinjana Yathra (Knowledge Campaign) on Waste Management connecting 12 location of Local Self Governments of Ernakulam district. It was from 29th September to October 2, 2012. It was a mobile exhibition of 12 manufacturers in vehicles exhibiting their products. At each location a big gathering was there to see the exhibition and learn from it. Going to the masses at their doorstep was a new experience for us in waste management. We would be continuing our walkathon of 15 days in January 2013. Regarding the expansion and continuation of the student initiatives, we are doing a follow up. Mr. Ajith.K., one of the student intern from Rajagiri got employed with a newspaper company named Mathrubhoomi in their environment protection Campaign Unit. Mr. Ashwin got admission in MSW Course.

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8 Personal Experiences 8.1 Mieke van Erk Before the trip My personal learning goal is first and foremost how to set up such a “greenfield” project like this. There was no other project at Sefa that was this new and uncertain, but I loved it since it meant everything was possible. We got a lot of freedom from de Pellikaan, they provided us with some guidance, but we got all responsibility for doing research and writing a business plan. In this project I will learn how to use your own creative thinking and entrepreneurial spirit. Creative and entrepreneurial thinking was necessary to see opportunities for fundraising and to write the business plan, but I think we will also very much need this in India.

The second learning goal for me would definitely be working with people from different cultures. Since I’ve been on exchange to Australia I do have some international experience, but the Australian working culture is not too different from the Dutch, so I am looking forward to encounter an entirely different culture in India. I think their different way of working might be frustrating sometimes and hard to understand for us, but it’s good to try to open your mind for it. I think there might be some other ways of working together that might be fruitful as well, and I hope to take those with me for the future.

The third learning goal for me is a personal one, I am very much interested in Buddhism and Hinduism and I would love to see how religion is intertwined with daily life in India. Because we will be working together with Indian students, I also hope to learn what it’s like to grow up in India, how they deal with the gap between rich and poor, how important religion is for them and what and how they learn at university.

After the trip When I was just reading my expectations for before the trip, I saw I expected we would need some creative entrepreneurial thinking. This was definitely the case, as most of the work we had done in preparation actually turned out to not be useful. The situation there was so different, that things we had expected to be doing when in Holland, turned out to be inapplicable to the Indian situation. What especially struck me, was the pace of decision making and working. In my opinion the process was very slow, and this was probably due to hierarchy being more embedded and important in the Indian culture.

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It was necessary to pay respect and get acquainted with people first before the work could start. In that way, it turned out to be very important to collaborate with the Indian students, since they have more elaborate knowledge of what is going to work and how things should be arranged. It was sometimes quite hard to learn about their thoughts and ideas on the project, because they are often too humble to share them. In the end the students came up with their own ideas, allowing us to really act and set up something in Kochi.

The second thing I experienced was that there are other cultures who are largely unaffected by western culture.

This might sound naĂŻve, but since my experience in Australia I was expecting most people in Indian cities to be already somewhat westernized. This actually largely (and fortunately) turned out to not be the case: all women were still wearing the amazing sarees and salwar kameez, the food consisted of delicious curries (no burgers to be found!) and all around you could notice the beautiful temples and churches who still play such an important part in Indian society. Next to that India has its own movies, its own music and its own languages, which really makes that Indian culture is preserved and not influenced by western cultures.

The thing that surprised me the most was how friendly Indians are. I think I’ve never met such kind, helpful people! Especially people on the streets always take the time to help you out, whereas in Europe everyone is mainly concerned with oneself. Even in times where the heat was almost unbearable or the traffic was so badly jammed that we were not even driving walking speed, people seemed to be accepting the way things are and not let it ruin their mood. Dutch people are way more spoilt, they would complain already when the train is 5 minutes late or when they do not have a seat in the bus. In India people seemed more satisfied with the things they do have, instead of focusing on what is not perfect yet.

8.2 Joeri Schouten Before the trip One of my main personal goals in this project is experience a completely different culture by working together with the local Indian people. In that way I will be able to find out the way they think and experience their way of doing business. I would like to experience how living in a booming economy, a lot of different religions and the different social environment effect their way of doing business and working together with us. The thing I am really curious about is whether our different (business) cultures can be complementary in such a way that we can create something together which differs substantially from when we would have created ourselves without cooperate with the Indian people. This project provides me and my Sefa partners the unique possibility to create a project from scratch. In that way it feels a little like starting up a new business like I have done. In this project however I can really learn working in a team, which I am not used to. The great thing is

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that during the process I got to notice that together we were able to come up with some great creative ideas about solving a problem we had no idea about or experience with before we started the project.

After the trip Social context The thing i was really impressed by was the strong presence of social context in Indian society, because this has a tremendous effect of the decision making of individual people. The opinion of the family and other people in the direct social environment, like teachers and the residence association, are strongly taking into account in how to behave in daily social life and in more substantial decisions. The thing I learned most from this is that if you are planning on doing a social project in foreign countries which have a high context culture in general, you should first get to know this context extensively before deciding what the best way of achieving the project goal is. This is especially important when you think that for achieving the project goals you would to work with a lot of local stakeholders.

Outside comfort zone I have never experienced a culture shock which comes even close to the one i experienced while working in India. The things that made me a little insecure are that I experience a lot of things I was not really able to structure of “frame” directly. I also had a lot of mood swings concerning if we would be able to achieve something. This made me wonder if a lot of things I learned in the Netherlands were even useful over there and if I really understood everything. Feeling insecure and having mood swings are things I almost never experience in the Netherlands anymore. That’s why I sometimes felt quite outside of my comfort zone. Only after a week or two I started to get familiar with the local culture and the local way of doing things. This made me gain some confidence in that we could actually make something happen there. Now I learned that I’m able to adapt to situations which at first forced me outside my comfort zone gives me some confidence that, if I will do business in the future in foreign countries, that i will be able to overcome big sociocultural differences.

Combining cultures when doing (business) projects In the Netherlands people learn to be structured, efficient, proactive and individualistic. People in India learn to obey to authority without being very critical and too proactive. These people do however know a lot more about the local situation than you do yourself. That is why you have to find stakeholders who are active in the context of the project and have a strong incentive to participate in the project. Listening carefully to their

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recommendations, structure them and then make something happen has a lot more chance of succeeding that if you enforce your western ideas on the local people.

8.3 Magdalena Rola-Janicka Before the trip One of my main goals when thinking about this project is to develop my team work skills. I believe that there is no better opportunity to practice the communication and idea sharing then when you face a group of several different people. I think that, because of our diversity in both culture and experiences, we can learn a lot from each other. I believe that one of the crucial skills for a successful cooperation in a group is ability to listen, understand and be critical, and this is what I had to use through the process of preparation so far. I think that my idea about a good team work can be further developed by the experiences I will have in India.

Another major issue for me is fulfilling my dream of implementing the sustainable solution to social and environmental problems. Couple of years ago I became interested in all sort of social problems around the globe. At first I was overwhelmed with the magnitude of these issues and the consequences they might have - from health to cultural implications. Adding to that I have learned about the vast amount of approaches that were taken to solve these problems and I found out that most of them were not successful, because they weren’t sustainable. Since then I started to be extremely enthusiastic about small scale, sustainable programs that would allow members of the communities to solve their problems themselves. Therefore I am very eager to take part in International Development Project and I strongly believe that we will be able to help the local community in India in making a valuable change. The sole fact of being part of this process is going to be a source of motivation. One of my goals is to be able to draw conclusions about what is actually needed for the solutions to be sustainable in local communities.

I believe that the possibility to travel to India and see the different lifestyle and culture will broaden my horizons, enabling me to see world many more different perspectives. I am continuously eager to develop my point of view and learn new lessons about people’s approaches and beliefs. I see the possibility of travelling to India as a highly enriching experience. I want to be able to understand their beliefs and everyday approach to the difficulties of life. I think that by learning more about other people and their attitudes and ways of thinking you become a better person. This is because for me, you can only call yourself open-minded if you have

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confronted you opinions with people holding different beliefs. Since, whatever someone says, there is always a part that is quite correct, I think that looking for this part and being able to confront it with my own mind on some issues is the most interesting part of learning process for a young person.

After the trip Even though the time spent in India has been a great experience as we met amazing people and saw beautiful places, there has been many challenges on our way. Unfamiliar environmental conditions, communication problems, very different way of working of Indian people, have sometimes caused a lot of frustration. But what has frustrated me during the day gave me grounds for thinking in the evening and has helped me to learn from it when I came back.

One of the main lessons I took in India is how to cooperate with people of very different temper, with completely different attitudes and mindsets as well as pronunciation and accent which are difficult to understand.

Being faced with a challenge of the project and the necessity of working together helped me shape some communication skills that worked in this particular case, and might become very useful next time that I will have the chance to work with people so much different from me. The way to balance friendliness and determination in presenting my views has been difficult but at some point I have learnt how to bring these two things together. I think this might enhance my team working abilities in the future.

What goes together with learning to cooperate is the experience of the culture itself and this project gave me a great chance to do that. As we met a lot of people every day, and continued to work with a group of Indians for 4 weeks I have managed to do observe their culture and the way of being. I think this has given me a huge lesson, by opening my eyes to such a different world of values and behavior. Even being prepared for big differences before coming, could not stop me from being surprised every time I discovered some new dissimilarity.

Finally I think that working on a project helped me appreciate the art and science of introducing a well working and sustainable development projects. I have seen that without the will and determination of local people all our efforts would turn to be useless. I have also learnt that working in such a different country is mostly about listening to the locals and their ideas and then trying to develop them and seek ways to implement there. Especially on this level, while working with students and under some kind of “teacher supervision� but I think this would also apply to all other sorts of projects- the foreigner coming there should be there to help the locals in managing the problem rather than go there and manage it himself. Adding to that one has to be really cautious about how the people are prepared to continue the project after he leaves and continue on supporting them when he is gone.

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In general I could go on like this (that’s is the one thing I didn’t learn how to talk less), because when I am thinking of my stay in India there are many topics that open for me and which I am eager to discuss and give account of…

8.4 Stanley Hau Before the trip The reason for me to join this project is the proactive approach required to make a difference in the society.

During my study I learned a lot from literature about the corporate world, but nothing about the society. I want to broaden my view on the world by participating in this project and help finding the correct solution for the waste management problems in India. This project is new for Sefa and me, what makes it exciting and great experience for me currently in my study.

With my Chinese background and being born in the Netherlands makes me curious about my own culture and traditions, and this differ from the Dutch culture and traditions. These differences taught me to think in different perspectives and be more open to other traditions. This project let me come into contact with another culture, the Indian culture.

The combination of development project and learning a new culture makes it an interesting and diverse project.

Everything is new for us as a team, but with the experiences of last year we have a good start to continue this project and even going beyond what the last year’s group have accomplished. We do learn new things about the project and culture every time. We will spread this knowledge to the Indian people and make sure the waste problem does not stay a problem.

After the trip The trip has indeed been proven really instructive for me. The country of India is even different than I could have ever imagined. Staying for four weeks in Kochi and working together with students have given me more insight about the Indian culture instead of going there as a tourist. The people are really kind, the traffic is crazy, and the food is amazing and coconut trees everywhere in Kochi. The culture shock is big, but luckily not huge. There are some similarities with the Chinese culture and climate making it somewhat easier to adapt. But I still needed a lot of time to get used to working with Indians. A meeting a 15.00h can also mean at 17.00h or the word ‘NO’ does not seem to exist. While it was sometimes frustrating working in India it has been an amazing experience and learned a lot from it.

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8.5 Ajith Kalapurackal Working with the International Development Project was very good experience for me, because we can do something for the serious developmental problem facing by India especially Kerala State. In order to implement a full-fledged macro solution is practically difficult because of the several problems like the opposition of the people, lack of political decisions and climate etc. Supply chain management is very much essential for the municipal solid waste management. Segregation is the main problem facing in Kerala for the disposal of the waste.

Implementation of the micro solution that developed in the IDP is very much appreciable and cost effective.

The residential association implemented so many waste composting units like pipe compost, vermicomposting, biogas plants in their area. Through these methods they are managing the bio-waste. Regarding the plastic waste, they are approaching the waste vendor.

8.6 Indu Aravand The problem of waste in India is mounting in a choking velocity and it is a matter of pride for us to get help and involvement from students of Amsterdam University in such burning issues of our country.

Societal progress is multidimensional and encompasses economic, social, cultural, spiritual and environmental dimensions. Most of the societal collapses recorded in human history have been due to unbalanced development neglecting in particular the environmental dimension. These days, environmental protection is relegated to a lower order priority to be addressed when the society’s ability and willingness to pay for environmental services increase consequent to rapid economic growth. So it was my privilege to be a part of IDP, 2012 so that I could do my bit to support for a cause to protect our environment and I am grateful to Principal Fr. Johnson Palackappillil and Head of the Department of Economics, Dr.K.V.Raju of S.H.College, Thevara for directing me to this project.

Even though I had a chance to interact with students from Japan, this was my first experience working with international students and I was amazed by the commitment and interest shown by the students of Amsterdam University to work with us in waste management problems and for giving us ideas about developing a suitable waste management model suited to our country.

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It was fun to work with people from a different country, different culture and background and I was happy to get to know and understand your way of life and I found it to be cooperative on your side in trying to understand our culture, customs and traditions and way of living even though it was a bit embarrassing in the beginning.

I think the current malfunction in waste management in our country is more a managerial/institutional failure rather than a technological breakdown. Here, management of waste has been regarded the exclusive responsibility of government, with no involvement at citizens or stakeholders level. Chalking out a green path to development needs to be rooted in local level awareness and action and we should be proud that we were successful in initiating awareness campaigns in schools, colleges, hotels and resident associations. What I have noticed is that, of late, people have started working on simple lifestyle changes to cut down landfill waste production in an environmentally sustainable way. Even I have installed pipe compost in my backyard, and I strongly believe that other places in Kerala would soon learn and adopt greener technologies to manage their wastes.

Another issue what I felt is that in accomplishing the transition to a green economy, the role of government is critical, especially in providing the necessary policy framework and in extending support in the early stages of development and adoption of green technologies. As of now, there are no clear cut and strict waste management regulations in India. Reforming government policies and the mindset of people will remain the major challenges in the transition to a green economy. As was witnessed by you, the working of government is sophisticated and complex in India and a lot of time is involved in decision making and its implementation. So I feel within the limited time of a month, as students, we were able to stand together to support for a cause to protect our environment.

I hope in the coming years, India will spearhead efforts to work towards a waste free environment as it has become necessary to ensure both people’s and nature’s wellbeing and I think making choices that can benefit both nature and us may be the finest option for securing development in our country.

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9 References Morissey, A.J. and Browne, J., 2004. Waste management models and their application to sustainable waste management. Waste Management, 24(3), Pp. 297-308.

Nilsson-Djerf, J. and McDougall, F., 2000. Social factors in sustainable wastemanagement.

Warmer Bulletin, 73,

pp. 18–20.

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10 Appendix The document prepared for schools to inform them about the possible solutions for their waste

Sustainable waste management options for schools A cooperation between Rajagiri OUTreach, S.H. College and the University of Amsterdam

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1 The program Together with students from the University of Amsterdam, Rajagiri OUTreach and Sacred Heart College has developed a model which provides a solution to the waste management problems of schools in the Kalamassery region. The model consists of a physical as well as an awareness part.

The physical waste problem is reduced by providing schools with low cost disposal solutions like waste bins for biodegradable; plastic and paper waste so that the waste can be segregated properly. After this has been done, biogas plants or bio compost plants can be installed at the schools so that they can effectively manage their biodegradable waste at source so it can be turned into cooking gas or compost. The segregated plastic and paper can be reused effectively or can be sold to the local waste merchants.

By doing this students can actually see, that being aware of what to do with waste is very useful if it is being processed properly. The goal of this project is to let the waste management model at the school be an example to the students and to get them motivated to practice it in their own community. Rajagiri, University of Amsterdam and Sacred Heart College will there by provide awareness campaigns at the schools and nearby communities to educate them on how to manage waste in general and on how to use the provided waste management facilities effectively.

2 The physical problem 2.1 Segregation After the waste has been produced, it has to be segregated properly into biodegradable waste, paper and plastic.

Schools can arrange their waste bins themselves or can contact the municipality if they can provide them.

Segregation of waste at school and ensuring that the segregated waste is then used in recycling process has many benefits: 

It provides the students with the good example for the waste behavior, helping them to grow the habit of segregating



It helps keep the region cleaner and by contributing to the environment on a small scale promotes proper waste behavior at other institutions and in households



It provides additional revenue such as the payments from paper and plastic and the product of processing the biodegradable waste such as gas or compost.

2.1 Biodegradable waste Food waste as well as garden waste falls in this category. Those are all organic waste which can be turned into compost or gas with the use of easily available technology

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2.1.1 Biogas plants Rajagiri OUTreach provides a solution for the problem of managing biodegradable waste by selling biogas plants. These plants turn biodegradable waste into cooking gas and are recognized by the government. This biogas plant can therefore be provided with a 75% government subsidy and a 15% subsidy from the sanitation mission!

Rajagiri OutReach provides biogas plants of varying capacity: there are portable plants of 4kg or 6kg daily capacity as well as fixed plants which can manage over 30kg of waste per day.

As the costs of portable biogas plants are fixed and listed below, the costs of plants of greater capacity are variable. They are established after inspection by experts and assessment of factors such as soil characteristics, level of ground waters etc.

There is a subsidy of 75% offered to all of the types of plants.

Initial costs Government subsidy Sanitation mission subsidy Final costs

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रु रु रु रु

Portable 4 kg 10.300 2.575 5.150 2.575

Portable 6 kg रु 13.500 रु 3.375 रु 6.750 रु 3.375

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Solution to the physical problem

2.1.2 Biocompost plants An alternative solution for biodegradable waste is bio compost plants. Rajagiri College provides a variety of alternatives for environmentally friendly waste disposal: 

Pipe composts This is the most economical solution that a household can implement for all types of organic wastes.

The processing of waste to compost takes 40 to 45 days. Another advantage of this solution is that it is not space consuming as the pipe is 8 inch width and 1m height. A pair of pipes cost just 900 before a 90% government subsidy so after the subsidy the cost has been reduced to 90 rupees!



Bio-pots The bin is composed of 3 parts and works with the help of “Environmental friendly Microbes solution”.

The solution contains bacteria which dilute the waste turning it into compost. While turning into compost, the waste does not smell. The price of this solution is 1000 rupees before subsidy and after the in total 75% subsidy, 50% from the state government and 25% from the local body; the costs will be 250 rupees.

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

Vermin composts This solution is based on natural behavior of earth worms that feed on all sorts of organic waste and turn it into compost. This type of waste processing results in very good quality of manure and allows to process high amounts of waste. The price of this system is 1200 rupees before subsidy and will be reduced after a 90% subsidy to 120 rupee.

2.2 Non-biodegradable waste Rubbish into rupees! That’s what can happen if the non-biodegradable waste can be segregated properly.

2.2.1 Paper If the paper is properly segregated, it can be sold to waste merchant companies and give you as much as 10 rupees from each kilogram of paper. The table on the next page show how much a kilo of each type of paper is worth.

2.2.2 Plastic Segregated plastic can also be sold to a waste merchant and gives you as much as 20 rupees from each kilogram.

3. Awareness On top of the solution for physical problem students from the Rajagiri college can perform awareness classes for students at the local schools. During the class they will show the importance of segregating waste at source.

In addition to that we promote other environmentally friendly behavior such as reuse of non- biodegradable products and reduction of consumption of plastics and papers will be promoted.

The goal of these awareness classes is that children at the local schools see that segregating waste is actually very useful and that they will develop the habit of segregating. We hope that by learning proper environmentally friendly behavior at school they will start implementing this at home.

Depending on the expectations and availability of the local school we can provide a regular class (2-4 time a year). By increasing the number of the meetings, we can make students more aware of the problem of waste and the ways in which they can contribute to solve it.

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4 Rates for segregated waste The tables below show the prices of which the waste can be sold to a waste wender. The transportation costs are not included in de price because it depends on the distance of transportation. Rajagiri is in contact with a waste merchant and will arrange the collection. The waste wender will pick the segregated waste up if is has reached a amount of 250 kg in total. The school can then contact Rajagiri and they will take care that the waste is being picked up.

Plastics Material Plastic Bottles PVC Pipes Sintex tank Milma packets Oose

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Paper Rate/kg रु 12 रु 16 रु 20 रु 15 रु 7 रु 7

Material News paper Notebooks Text books Carton box

Others Rate/kg रु 9 रु 10 रु 6 रु 7

Material Iron Mobile Phone Monitor Tyre Disc Steel Stainless steel 1st Stainless steel 2nd Stainless steel 3rd Battery

Rate/kg रु 21 रु 25 रु 350 रु 100 रु 17 रु 25 रु 60 रु 30 रु 25 रु 40

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