As The World Unites In Paris, This Rag Picker From Bengaluru Will Teach Them A Thing Or Two About Recycling

While the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) plans to introduce stringent measures in the city to ensure proper waste segregation by Bengaluru's citizens, 33-year-old Mansoor Ahmed, waste-picker from the city, will be in Paris for the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP (Conference Of Parties) 21, scheduled to be held from November 30 to December 11.

Bangalore Mirror

His hard work and vision in spreading awareness about waste management among the citizens has led him to Paris to present a talk to participants from across the world.

During his visit to Paris, he will talk about the importance of waste segregation and how he was able to create awareness and convince 75 per cent of his customers to segregate waste at source.

Mansoor speaks three languages: Tamil, Hindi and Kannada. He admits he cannot utter a single sentence in English. "English is not a problem as long as my work talks for me. I'm genuine and there is sincerity in my work which will speak for me. Besides, I will have a translator. As part of my talk, I will be narrating my journey from a seven-year old rag-picker to what I'm today," he says. He has a team of 12 members at the Jayanagar DWCC who manage an inventory of 10-12 tonnes of dry waste every month.

Mansoor's talk will be translated by Kabir Arora, who coordinates Alliance of Indian Waste-pickers (AIW) - an informal network of organisations, cooperatives, and companies working on waste management with the help of waste-pickers. Hasiru Dala, which is a coalition member the AIW and an organisation of waste-pickers and waste workers, is sponsoring Mansoor's 10-day trip.

"The team from Hasiru Dala asked me if I was interested in going to Paris for a conference. I was elated and immediately said yes. My passport and visa had to be made," says an excited Mansoor. He flew to Delhi from Bengaluru on Monday and will reach Paris later in the day.

Mansoor operates the Dry Waste Collection Centre (DWCC) (recyclables and inorganic waste aggregation and sorting unit) in ward 168 of Jayanagar in. He went door-to-door in the area around the centre to encourage residents to segregate their wastes and drop it at the DWCC.

The daily collection of the DWCC is about 120 kg from waste-pickers. The DWCC receives one tonne of waste from apartment collection. Mansoor uses a rotating fund of Rs 3,000 to buy wastes from the apartments.

He will be part of a joint delegation of Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) and Alliance of Indian Waste-pickers (AIW) for COP 21.

The IYCN is a network uniting Indian youth and youth-oriented organisations who are concerned about climate change and environment issues. The network works to generate awareness about and establish consensus on what role India should play in the global debate of climate change and how it should address its domestic issues.

Mansoor was just a seven-year-old when he began helping his parents collect waste by sorting it. At that time, he used to manage around 500 kg of waste every month.

He attended a small government school near his home but had to drop out of school in Class 5 when his father passed away.

He is the oldest among nine siblings (he has six sisters and two brothers), and the burden of responsibility to take care of them brothers and sisters feel upon his young shoulders.

He joined the informal waste sector with his mother to help supplement the family income.

They ran a small scrap shop near their home where all the waste-pickers from their slum would bring their daily collection. They would manage around 500 kg of waste every day.

Working with waste has therefore been the only job that Mansoor has known, but it has provided for him and his family. Thanks to the use of technology and people his people-management skills, Mansoor has been able to scale new heights.

He says he is eager to learn the concepts of solid waste management followed in Paris and will find ways to implement it at his centre too.

From the conference, he wants the countries to pursue the agenda of recycling (Waste to energy) in their climate action commitments as opposed to incineration of waste - which is currently being proposed as a climate solution by many governments. Incineration is being perceived as a threat to Mansoor's and many other green entrepreneurs' livelihood.

For his visit, he was asked to buy a pair of thermal wear as Paris would be freezing at this point of time. "I didn't know that we could find thermal wear here. I was asked to buy them; but one pair costs Rs 2,000. But it's going to keep me warm when I land there. I have already purchased my formal wear two months ago. I am too excited about my trip. It all feels surreal," he says.

With his contagious smile he has been easily able to build excellent relationships with his customers to whom he provides waste collection services. The last few days he has been flooded with congratulatory messages from them for this prestigious trip.

Today, with the Paris trip materialising, he feels his hard work has paid off although he claims never to have imagined that he would be able to visit a foreign country. "This is my first visit to a foreign country...and in an airplane. I'm feeling ecstatic and proud. Never in my life had I imagined that I would get such an opportunity. This would not be possible if it were not for the people who supported me throughout my life. I really want to thank my well-wishers, friends and relatives," says Mansoor, who has three children: two boys and a girl.

He has enrolled his children in Oxford School in JP Nagar. And his aim now: To give his children a solid education ... and the freedom to follow their dreams.