Trestor and IIT Bombay students have the perfect solution to Mumbai’s difficult water situation

It was in October 2, 2015 that the Narendra Modi government started the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan or Clean India Mission. It is 2016 and yet Clean India is far from reaching its vision. The problem is with our mindset. Hence, Trestor in collaboration with some IIT Bombay students created Swachh Machine to incentivise people to participate in the mission. It is every bit as clever as it sounds!

The idea: for every recyclable waste item one puts inside the machine, they will be rewarded with a digital value token called ‘trest’, which can be exchanged for 300 ml of clean drinking water. At a time when the city of Mumbai is heading towards a drought like situation, this comes as a boon.

“Through our Swachh Machine, we intend to inculcate a culture of cleanliness among the people of Mumbai,” said Kunal Dixit, founder of Trestor, a startup that is using the concept of bitcoin to connect the community.

You do not need a smartphone to receive the token, you can also take a printout of it and use it. It has been installed at IIT Bombay and the results have been remarkable.

“The aim is to install it in every available public space like railway stations, bus stops, roadsides etc. We target to install 5000 machines every month by the end of 2016,” said Kunal.

The machine has 3 compartments, one for bottles, one for cans and one for things which are not bottles or cans. The machine detects the waste and generates token. Though one can put non-recyclable waste too in it, one does not get any trest in return. The machine reduces the waste to one-sixth of its size. When it reaches 80% of its capacity, it sends an SMS or a voice note to the administrator.

The starting cost of one machine is Rs. 50,000. The price can go as high as Rs. 1 lakh depending on the customisation one needs.