Trashman: Garbage collection from houses in Chennai goes hi-tech


Members of Trashman distributing a sapling at a school in Tambaram.

Chennai: It is popularly said cleanliness begins at your own home and if each one of us starts maintaining it, the entire nation will automatically become clean.

As a small effort to make this happen, a six-member team of mechanical engineers from Tambaram have come up with a mobile app that will help people get rid of unwanted waste from their home.

The app, titled ‘Trashman’, is an online scrap pickup service which helps people dispose of unwanted waste from their house in an efficient and eco-friendly way.

Speaking to News Today, one of the founding members of the app, Diwaker, said the app works to promote and encourage the development of high standards of waste management services with respect to all solid waste, e-waste and recyclable waste.

“We collect everything from old papers, books, cardboard boxes, bottles, iron, aluminium, steel, brass, copper, batteries, ceiling fans,” he said, and added that the initiative was taken up as an effort to make the city greener and cleaner.

Speaking about the benefits of using Trashman app, he said it is easy to book. “Our measurements are accurate, our executives are trusted and we give instant cash for the trash that we receive,” he added.

Talking about transparency, he said the app has the price of each metal updated regularly and the materials will be collected based on that price.

So what happens after the trash is collected? Diwaker said recyclable materials are reprocessed into new useful products or raw materials and as a result, the amount of waste sent to landfill reduces.

“We strongly believe today’s waste is a resource for tomorrow’s product. Converting all the different types of waste into raw materials will help us reduce the resource to be consumed for tomorrow. Recycling will help in reducing land and water pollution. We care for even the smallest of the smallest recyclable items entering into the landfill. So, we provide trash bag to every user of Trashman. We believe we can help people collect the smallest of trash. At present, the service is available in Tambaram, Mudichur, Selaiyur, Alapakkam, Perungalathur, Sanatorium and Hastinapuram.”

“We are planning to expand our services in the future. Our team comprises six members – Udhaya Kumar, Santharam, Vedha Vijay, Shiju Kingsly and Saravanan. Three of us work in private companies and join the other members during the weekend. We even connect to help marriage halls, hospitals, companies, etc., in recycling bulk quantities of trash,” he said.

GREEN EXCHANGE
The app gives users a free sapling if they are able to collect 150 trashcoins. On each transaction, a coin will be given to the customer.