A villager shows a handicraft item made from waste collected from a house in Kasri. Picture by Amit Kumar

Homemaker Bindu Devi of Kasri, a nondescript hamlet under Kahalgaon sub-division of Bhagalpur, had never imagined that the household garbage she disposes of everyday would one day add to her family’s income.

Thanks to a public health project launched last year, there has been a change in the fortune of Bindu and her likes in villages like Kasri, Oriup and Bateshwarstahn in the district, around 270km northeast of Patna. The project, called Green Village Zero Rubbish Project, was launched to manage the garbage pollution in the region.

“The scheme envisaged waste pickup at the individual-level and transform the no-value material into one with importance by using market forces to effect social change,” said David R. Priest, a doctor and a member of American Society of Neuroradiology, California, US. David is a founder of the project.

“Villagers collect garbage from homes, schools, roads, and fields and bring the stuff to us in sizeable quantities. We receive the garbage and pay them for it in cash. We have fixed a rate that matches the local average daily wage for unskilled labourers. We provide any individual Rs 4 for a kg of garbage. But if the amount is over 49kg, we give an additional Rs 1 as incentive to the villager concerned,” he added.

Sources said several villagers were happy with the project as it provided extra income. Nutan Devi of Oriup earned Rs 90 in December, while Bateshwarstahn resident Bhola Yadav earned Rs 120 in November-December.

According to David, the garbage is stored and sorted into its component parts — recyclable, compost, and non-recyclable. The recyclable material is sold to nearby companies . “In a very short time, the project has given rise to a new local industry whereby we sort, prepare and sell large quantities of collected material to recyclers. For the non-recyclable material, we have devised methods to enable their re-use, such as weaving rope out of discarded plastic shopping bags and fashion baskets out of candy wrappers — items that are now being sold at local markets. Our project has created a market for buying and selling of garbage, transforming it into a commodity of value,” he pointed out.

The project has yielded amazing results, removing more than 52,000lbs of garbage from its pilot village in the first seven months,” David added.