Seeing the ‘Change’ | Upasana Pandey | Masters of Industrial Design 2025
Hello all, as I finally begin writing, it feels like a lot has been done in these 2 months already! Though I am originally from India, I had never been to Bengaluru before. I flew in 2 days before the start of my internship and I am staying with a friend – funnily an hour away from my office. Its been a new experience with new food, new language and new geographies.
I am doing my fellowship with Let’s Be The Change, an organization in Bengaluru India, which deals with Solid Waste Management. This blog covers my exploration of the office and the work they have been doing in the first 2.5 weeks.
My first day at work was at Intel!
Let’s Be The Change (LBTC) collaborated with Intel to organize a cloth repurpose drive at Intel campus on World Environment Day (June 5th). The goal of this initiative was to foster a sense of responsibility among Intel employees regarding the pressing issue of textile waste, encouraging them to embrace a low-waste lifestyle and sustainable fashion practices.
The drive was organized across three rooms at Intel: a donation room where clothes were collected, a room for making coasters, and another for sewing tote bags from old T-shirts. All rooms were led by women tailors from low-income communities to teach these skills to Intel employees.
15 Intel employees participated in the event, donating their old or damaged clothing items that they no longer needed. Volunteers learned to repurpose their garments creatively, crafting various types of bags suited to their personal needs. The drive resulted in the collection of over 12 kgs of textile waste.
Additionally, we set up an educational stall where I spoke with Intel employees and volunteers about the detrimental impact of fast fashion on our environment.
Operation Repurpose at Banashankari
Over the weekend, LBTC conducted Operation Repurpose for the residents of Banashankari 2nd stage.
Residents were informed prior via WhatsApp about the event so they gathered to drop off their collected waste. In exchange, they could choose a few of sustainable items as a reward for their effort.
The collected waste was then given to the local raddiwala/dry waste collectors (15kgs) and nearly 118kgs of dry and recyclable waste was given to Ecocrew (a dry waste collection startup) for further processing and recycling.
It was beautiful to see how the neighborhood gathered to dispose the waste effectively, as well as the volunteers who showed up to help carry the event. The event aimed to encourage community participation in recycling efforts while promoting environmentally friendly shopping choices.
It is particularly to be noted that Banashankari is a high-income neighborhood and seeing the rich take actions of their waste was much appreciated by all. At the same time, a smaller slum in another neighborhood adopted by LBTC called as Mestripalya/Bisleri Slum was more successful at segregating waste effectively for 1.5 years consecutively.
Appreciations and Goodbyes at the Bisleri Slum, Koramangala
Bisleri Slum, a LBTC adopted low-income community under BOSCH CSR has been regularly segregating their waste in 2 bins – 1 bags; wet, dry and hazardous waste. Each day, the waste picker gives them scores on their segregations. This segregation has been surveyed since 1.5 years.
Later that week, the community women of Bisleri Slum were rewarded with goodies to acknowledge their commitment and encourage them to sustain their efforts. The women were very happy to receive plates. They also mentioned that due to proper segregation, the waste dumps in the neighborhood has been reduced thus reducing the mosquitoes in the area.
It was a humbling experience to visit the slum and see how everyone managed and took responsibility of their waste. This event was a farewell event as LBTC was not needed anymore as the slum was self-sufficient in managing their waste. What a beautiful change!
Visit to Kalika Kendra, HSR
Finally, to end the exploration phase of the organization, I was suggested to visit Kalika Kendra, a park that has been made to teach sustainability, waste management and using eco-friendly practices.
One of my project (will cover this in upcoming blog) is to make Knowledge Hub at the LBTC office, so this was a visit to see existing places to take inspirations.
