Waste picking machine: India has between 15 lakh to 40 lakh people working as waste pickers, and their work puts them at a high risk in terms of health. Waste carries pathogens and due to the lack of proper resources, including safety gear, waste pickers are often at the risk of contracting diseases. Moreover, reckless disposal of waste by people further endangers them. However, now, Pune-based cleantech start-up Spruce Up Industries has now developed a machine that would help these sanitation workers in cleaning the country’s cities and villages in a much safer manner, the organisation said. The machine, named ‘JATAYU’, is being touted as an indigenous hassle-free machine that would pick up litter, and it has been specifically designed for India.
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The company said that JATAYU is currently working in three metro cities of the country and has also been deployed in about 10 states, as well as 20 large municipalities including that in Delhi. It added that the machine is being used to ensure safe sanitation especially during the pandemic, as it helps in collecting garbage contactlessly, thereby reducing the chances of sanitation workers contracting diseases.
“Our intervention was aimed at solving this problem — the extent of which is across India and other than manual picking which did not have any other solution. Jatayu- the machine is a result of our two years of research into this,” Abhishek Shelar, CEO Spruce Up, also an alumnus of Harvard and IIT Bombay.
As per the startup, the uniqueness of the machine is that it is the first machine in India that has the ability to collect heavy waste even in environments that are challenging. It added that the machine helped to clean the riverbanks and it was deployed to also clean up the aftermath of Nivar cyclone that affected Chennai. The statement also said that JATAYU machines have been able to undertake the collection of thousands of tonnes of garbage in the country.
Listing the features of the machine, it said that using it would not require any manual handling of waste at any stage from collection to dumping at the waste dumping site. It is also designed to be installed on any heavy vehicle – truck or car. It functions much like a vacuum cleaner, with its suction power having the ability to collect any kind of waste.
Waste disposal and manual waste collection is a major issue in the country as sanitation workers are at health risk, with chances of them even contracting COVID-19 in the absence of proper safety gear.
