TMS. What first pushed you to turn a personal concern about waste into a structured movement like Why Waste Wednesdays? Was there a moment that made you feel this had to become a collective mission rather than an individual effort?
Dr. Ruby Makhija. My journey began inside my own colony, Navjeevan Vihar, where I realised that even educated urban communities struggled with something as basic as segregating their waste. In 2018, when we conducted the baseline study with the Enactus IIT Delhi team, the gap between perception and practice became striking — while most residents believed they were environmentally conscious, actual segregation at source was almost negligible. That mismatch was a turning point for me. The day we declared mandatory segregation in January 2019, after countless door-to-door sessions with residents, domestic helps, garbage collectors, and housekeeping staff, I saw something shift.
People were not unwilling — they were simply uninformed or unstructured. When the entire colony came together and we hit 100% segregation, I knew this change could not stay limited to one neighbourhood. That is when Why Waste Wednesdays transformed from a personal conviction into a structured platform — one that could take this model of community ownership, awareness, and accountability to many more spaces. The “moment” was simply this: realising that systems don’t change because of rules, they change because communities decide they will.
TMS. Your foundation works at the intersection of community behaviour, sustainability education, and circular-economy practices. How do you bridge that gap between household-level habits and broader systemic change?
Dr. Ruby Makhija. Our approach has always been “awareness-to-action.” People change when systems around them also change. So we design interventions that operate both inside the home and outside it. At the household level, we begin with behaviour change — door-to-door sensitisation, training domestic helps, hand-holding residents, children, and housekeeping staff. This is how Navjeevan Vihar achieved and sustained 100% segregation, composting, and zero-plastic events.
To link this to systemic transformation, we build circular systems around them:
RRR Centres that convert discarded items into reusable or upcycled products, while simultaneously supporting SHGs and relief systems.
PaperLoop, where institutions exchange waste paper for recycled paper products, creating a visible loop of value.
Project Vikalp, India’s largest “borrow a cloth bag” network, with over 1.75 lakh bags in circulation — making behaviour change effortless by shifting the marketplace itself.
Zero-waste events, including at Rashtrapati Bhavan, showing that even massive gatherings can become models of circularity.
By building systems where sustainable choices are the easier choices, communities automatically transition from intention to implementation. That is how individual habits begin to shape city-level outcomes.
TMS. You often translate complex ideas — segregation, composting, zero-waste — into everyday action for communities. Is there a story from the field that stayed with you, one that captures the real impact of this work on people’s lives?
Dr. Ruby Makhija. One story that always stays with me is from our Sunday Special Collection Drive in Navjeevan Vihar. Every week, residents drop off old clothes, books, utensils, plastic, e-waste, floral waste, and even used cooking oil. All of this is reused, upcycled, or sent to authorised recyclers. What appears like a simple donation ritual is, in reality, a deep cultural shift.
I remember a domestic help who picked a set of children’s books from the Neki ki Deewar. A few weeks later, she told me her daughter had started reading every night and now wanted to “become a teacher.” That moment made me realise that waste management is not just about the environment — it is about dignity, redistribution, access, and aspiration.
Another powerful moment was watching the women’s SHG convert our donated newspapers into envelopes and bags, giving them livelihood and agency. Similarly, floral waste turned into dhoop cones, and surplus cloth upcycled into 3000+ cloth bags — each initiative touching lives far beyond the environmental narrative. Sustainability becomes real when people feel it in their everyday lives — in pride, opportunity, and community belonging.
TMS. As someone shaping the conversation on urban sustainability, what shifts do you believe Indian cities most urgently need — whether in mindset, policy, or market design — to truly move toward a zero-waste future?
Dr. Ruby Makhija. Indian cities need three parallel transformations: 1. A Mindset Shift: From ‘throwing away’ to ‘owning your waste’ Urban residents often delegate responsibility — to government agencies, workers, or systems. But segregation, composting, litter-free public spaces, and plastic reduction require citizen ownership.
- Systemic Simplification: Make sustainable choices frictionless
Policies must be matched by infrastructure: segregated collection systems, localised composting, RRR centres, easy-return models like Vikalp, and recycling linkages. When sustainability is convenient, participation scales automatically.
- Market Transformation: Build a vibrant circular economy
Cities must actively create markets for recycled products, upcycled goods, compost, recycled paper, and secondary resources. Initiatives like PaperLoop, recycled plastic playground equipment, and upcycled cloth bags show how waste becomes a resource.
India’s move toward zero-waste cities will not be technology-led alone — it will be people-led, community-supported, and system-enabled.
