The Only Way To Activate These Indian ‘WiFi Dustbins’ Is To Segregate Your Trash

Many are familiar with the sinister tale of Pied Piper - who with his tunes enticed the children of Hamelin into disappearance forever. While people believe this tale to be a legend, In the fast age driven by technology I assume WiFi is our Pied Piper or as my grandfather often calls it ‘The doom of the millennial’. Even in the era of unlimited mobile data, my face lights up when I see my phone connected to free WiFi. Two law students from Hyderabad are using this millennial weakness to incentivise waste reduction and segregation.

Commuting from Sonipat to New Delhi on a regular basis, while most millennials would plug in the earphones and watch the world go by, Chanakya Basa and Mani Kanth failed to ignore the notorious Bhalaswa landfill that left its stench far enough for one to dread the commute forever. The realization that the city is crumbling under the dead weight of waste led to the invention of Rekarmate back in October 2016. Rekarmate is a public service initiative that aims to rid of the waste that been stacking up in every city, the child labor involved in the entire process and fight the unscientific and unhygienic treatment of waste.

The segregation of waste is one of the Solid Waste Management Rules issued by the Government of India under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan scheme 2016. Waste generators are required to segregate their waste into three categories- Dry, Domestic Hazardous waste and Biodegradables before they are collected by local collectors, yet our inability to segregate waste has lead to the proliferation of landfills.

In order to spread awareness about this situation, the Rekarmate mission has launched Wi-Fi Dustbins in Hyderabad. The Wi-Fi dustbin follows three steps to function:

Step 1- In order to use the dustbin, you need to establish a connection by connecting to ‘Rekarmate-1’ to your once.

Step 2- Through a web browser pops up, identify the waste an dump it in the designated bin. Blue bin for dry waste and Green bin for wet waste.

Step 3- After dumping the waste, enter the four digit code displayed on the led screen, sign up/sign in and get uninterrupted wifi for 45 minutes.

Each bin has been instilled with two sensors which track the movement when the waste is dumped and generate the code to help you access the internet. The project is still in its pilot stage and requests the users to dump the waste in the correct dustbin. Although the connection gives a speed of about 1 Mbps for 45 minutes, 10 people can access it at one time.

Since childhood we have been conditioned with the idea that good deeds are always rewarded, using the same principle Rekarmate is rewarding free wifi connection to anyone who segregates the waste responsibly. Through the Wi-Fi dustbin initiative Rekarmate is combining two prominent national campaigns - Swachh Bharat and Digital India to bring about the change they wish to see in their cities.