It's not your usual habba, but celebrates what it means to keep the city clean. The 14-day Bengaluru Recycle Habba launched on November 1, has been designed to generate civic sense in not just the government but also among ordinary people, industries and business establishments. The first such initiative in the country, its the baby of the Solid Waste Management Round Table (SWMRT) and is supported by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, the BBMP and the Karnataka High Court legal services committee. Its main objective? To bring together all the stakeholders of the city and deal with garbage effectively. "The aim is to find sustainable solutions to the city's growing waste issues by collaborating with government agencies and industries.It is being done in a celebratory manner so as to encourage the sharing of ideas and responsibilities and free us all from the menace of trash in the city," says habba curator, Jenny Pinto

The habba has seen the BBMP commissioner listing out measures the agency hopes to put in place in a year's time for sustainable waste management system and has also featured several awareness programmes on solid waste management, got the community to participate in a race to collect waste, brought together experts to discuss a policy to support extended producer responsibility, created accessories and home decor with waste and also provided a platform to exchange and reuse items. "We feel that the first step towards inspiring people to change has been made," says Wilma Rodriguez of Sahaas.

SWMRT has done a lot more than organise the habba. It has in two years introduced segregation and recycling in 25,000 households in the city, trained more than 125 BBMP environment officers and ensured that the BBMP allocated Rs 25 lakhs per ward for dry waste collection centres. But it understands that all such initiatives need to be constant if the city has to be rid of the waste littering its streets, making them both an eyesore and a health hazard.