EPISODE · Jun 11, 2026 · 4 MIN
Zero Waste Heroes: Cities Already Getting It Right
from WastEd — a Waste Education Initiative by Funeducated · host Sudeep KP
What does a truly zero-waste city look like — and does one already exist in India? In this episode of Wasted, Shreya takes us inside three Indian cities that stopped waiting for a perfect solution and built their own. Alappuzha, a backwater town in Kerala, now sends less than 2% of its waste to landfill — using nothing more than community composting and political resolve. Indore has topped the Swachh Survekshan rankings for seven years straight, powered by GPS-tracked trucks, musical collection vans, and a civic commitment that outlasted elections. And Pune's SWaCH cooperative put 4,000 waste pickers — mostly Dalit women — at the centre of a system that now serves 6 lakh households with a 95% satisfaction rate.These aren't outliers. They're blueprints. This episode is about what happens when cities stop treating waste workers as an afterthought and start treating them as infrastructure — and what it would take for every Indian city to follow suit.This week's action: Look up your city's Swachh Survekshan rank, and ask your local councillor one simple question — what is our ward's waste segregation rate?Wasted is a Waste Education Initiative by Funeducated.For more information or collaboration, visit www.funeducated.com/wasted or email [email protected]
What this episode covers
What does a truly zero-waste city look like — and does one already exist in India? In this episode of Wasted, Shreya takes us inside three Indian cities that stopped waiting for a perfect solution and built their own. Alappuzha, a backwater town in Kerala, now sends less than 2% of its waste to landfill — using nothing more than community composting and political resolve. Indore has topped the Swachh Survekshan rankings for seven years straight, powered by GPS-tracked trucks, musical collection vans, and a civic commitment that outlasted elections. And Pune's SWaCH cooperative put 4,000 waste pickers — mostly Dalit women — at the centre of a system that now serves 6 lakh households with a 95% satisfaction rate.These aren't outliers. They're blueprints. This episode is about what happens when cities stop treating waste workers as an afterthought and start treating them as infrastructure — and what it would take for every Indian city to follow suit.This week's action: Look up your city's Swachh Survekshan rank, and ask your local councillor one simple question — what is our ward's waste segregation rate?Wasted is a Waste Education Initiative by Funeducated.For more information or collaboration, visit www.funeducated.com/wasted or email [email protected]
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Zero Waste Heroes: Cities Already Getting It Right
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