To know more about what wasteless does, AUP students visited wasteless where a presentation was done by the founder Ribhu Vohra. During the presentation he talked about his journey and how wasteless was founded. Ribhu seems very passionate about what he does, he has committed himself to waste-related issues after his visit to Auroville in 2008, he began with a creative anti-litter campaign targeting children in India. After the campaign, he spent 3 more years working on grass-roots waste management projects with residents and local government, researching innovative and sustainable methods to increase resource recovery from Indian waste. Simultaneously, with a small team he developed Garbology 101, a creative activity-based educational programme on waste. This led to the founding of WasteLess. 

He took the time to explain the different kinds of waste to us and how they are recycled, he also  discussed the importance of waste management and his project, Garbology,  which educates the newer generations to waste less and manage their waste. I think the approach he has to saving the environment is an excellent one, he is trying to teach the children how to pay more attention to the environment in an entertaining way. He has made books which are now used in the schools, these books help the Indian children know what materials are bad for the environment and encourages them not to purchase or use it. He believes that what we are doing is unfair to the newer generations and he wants to educate the new generation because if they don’t learn then the world will be destroyed forever.  

He mentioned that not all waste can be recycled because only a few people separate their waste and once the waste isn’t separated, it’s very hard for the recycling companies to recycle. While others can’t be recycled because of the components they have put together. He also showed us a picture of one of the dumpsites in Pondicherry and compared the differences of how it was years ago and what it looks like now. The picture was shocking! The amount garbage in it was unbelievably too much. He also added that if people do not start wasting less and separating their waste, it will result in destroying the earth and damaging our health faster than most of us can imagine. He quoted that “Our planet can’t handle it, and neither can we”.  

He concluded by passing around some plastic materials and telling us which ones are recycled and which ones aren’t. In addition to that, he told us about the different types of plastics and the ones which are bad for our health. Which was very interesting because most of us found out that even the water bottles we were using were bad for our health. It was definitely a great presentation, full of useful information and he concluded with asking us to be more responsible while purchasing products and creating waste.  

wasteless team. AUP students