IITB ki Taaza Khabar

Core Members of Team Zero Waste

A mountain of disposable waste has become a norm for large scale gatherings and events, with IIT Bombay being no exception. Whether it is the half marathon, Mood Indigo, Techfest or any other big event, heaps of waste especially that of disposable plastic bottles has become a usual sight. Serious rethinking and efforts are needed to conduct such mass gatherings in an environmentally sustainable manner. One such effort was made by Team Zero Waste during the IIT Bombay Half Marathon, which is annually held on the campus in October. 

Team Zero Waste, is a student organisation for students from various programmes and disciplines at IIT. It aims to improve the management of waste at IIT Bombay and to reduce the amount of waste that is sent to the Kanjurmarg landfill.

Photograph by Hermes Rivera

Eat, attend classes, study and sleep – it’s the same daily routine for every inmate in IIT Bombay hostels. In this process, students also send their trash to the Kanjurmarg landfill through the current waste management process. This out-of-sight, out-of-mind approach towards the waste generated by every student has had our waste entering a myriad of places including landfills, oceans and waterways brimming with trash. A significant part of this jumbled up mess can be put to reuse, however, it becomes challenging to segregate the recyclables from the waste as it is compacted before dumping in landfills.

NSS team members, IIT Bombay: Top row (left to right) Jahanvi Akanksha, Tejaswini Narwade and Vaibhavi Agrawal; Middle row (left to right): Shaan Ul Haque, Shubham Varankar, Saieesh Jirwankar, Yatendra Gupta. Bottom row (left to right): Hari Krishna Sai and Kushank Jaiswal.

Whenever one visits the IIT Bombay campus, the thing that can never go unnoticed is the green cover in the midst of the metropolitan city. Our institute being blessed by such great floral diversity, we at Green Campus NSS IIT Bombay put in dedicated efforts in binding together humans with this nature. 

If you do ever have a walk along the roadsides, the white placards on the trees are something that catches everyone’s eye. Four years ago when there were none of these, no one ever bothered to notice the greenery. With a vision to make people stand by these trees and make them appreciate the resources we have in the institute, the team of Green Campus department of NSS IIT Bombay went on identifying the species of the trees on several routes in the Institute. Within a few weeks, all those trees had a placard that identified the tree. 

About five years ago, during a ’71 batch chemical alumni meet in Pune, there was a suggestion that an N. R. Kamath Chair Professorship be set up through our donations. Though it sounded good, nothing much came of it. As a matter of fact, we did not even get started on raising funds.

But then, during the birth centenary celebrations of Prof. N. R. Kamath, Alum Himmatsinhka proposed this cause to a much wider audience. His determination, diligence and persistent effort resulted in the chair professorship becoming a reality.