Streamlining Waste Collection: A Design Thinking Approach

Challenge
An NGO faced significant challenges in organizing waste collection across municipalities in a religious city and a large urban center with high-rise buildings. The key issues included inconsistent waste segregation at the source, inefficiencies in waste collection logistics, and improper handling of segregated waste during transit. These problems hindered the NGO’s ability to manage dry and wet waste effectively, impacting environmental and operational goals.

Approach Adopted
To address these challenges, the NGO implemented the Design Thinking approach, starting with a comprehensive understanding of the entire waste management journey.

1. Empathy Phase
   The process began with direct engagement with households, waste collectors, and municipal workers. Observations and interviews helped uncover key pain points: residents lacked awareness about segregation practices, collection schedules were inconsistent, and waste segregation often got mixed during transit.
2. Define Phase
   The insights gathered highlighted the core challenges, such as the need for better segregation education, optimized collection methods, and improved transport mechanisms to maintain segregation integrity.
3. Ideate Phase
   The team brainstormed innovative solutions, including awareness campaigns for households, color-coded collection bins, dedicated collection schedules for dry and wet waste, and modified vehicles with segregated compartments.
4. Prototype and Test Phases
   Prototypes like educational drives, labeled bins, and trial runs of segregated vehicles were tested in select areas. Feedback was used to refine these solutions for broader implementation.

Through this human-centered approach, the NGO not only improved waste segregation and collection efficiency but also fostered greater resident participation, creating a sustainable model for waste management in urban and religious municipalities.

Result

A deep understanding of the households in the way they assimilated and segregated the waste during the course of the day and the approach adopted in handing over the waste