Reducing organic waste and methane emissions in Mumbai

Waste segregation at source among Mumbai households is inconsistent and ineffective due to a lack of infrastructure for solid waste management, weak implementation of penalties, a lack of trust in civic bodies, a fragmented waste ecosystem, a lack of perceived personal or city-wide benefits, and misaligned messaging that fails to address residents’ aspirations, motivations and barriers to action.

Drive sustainable household waste segregation in Mumbai by combining targeted awareness campaigns that build trust, dispel misconceptions, and encourage low-barrier actions. Alongside, engage multiple stakeholders in the ecosystem in order to broaden participation, foster collaboration, and strengthen the capacity of the waste chain – ultimately increasing both resident intention to act and stakeholder engagement within the waste ecosystem.

The Aamhi Sorted, Mumbai Sorted campaign uses the iconic Mumbai “local” railway signage as a visual metaphor for waste segregation, drawing on its familiarity and everyday presence. It evokes nostalgia, community, and trust, while inspiring motivation to act. The Anek Family typeface ensures clarity across formats. An earthy palette grounds the visuals in sustainability, with a bold “Bijli” accent for energy. Hand-crafted, Bollywood-inspired illustrations add a textured, local feel that’s emotionally resonant and visually engaging. The campaign messaging uses themes of nostalgia, pride, and health, based on our understanding of the audience and their connections to waste management, and leverages short-form digital content, and creative installations on-ground.

A clean-a-thon in an iconic city forest spotlighted the issue in a novel way. We combined socializing and fitness goals with caring for the environment and pride in one’s city. We mobilized a new audience (fitness enthusiasts) by connecting wellbeing to waste management. We also took a traveling art installation shaped like a butterfly (symbolizing transformation) to 5 locations, to which the audience added their plastic waste, learned about circularity and the monetary incentives of upcycling.

Our awareness campaign connected personal actions to the city’s goals. It aimed to build trust, dispel misconceptions, and encourage low-barrier actions using health, hygiene, worker safety and animal welfare as entry points. A mix of digital and offline tactics including clean-up drives, art-based activations to highlight the upcycling potential of plastic, DIY workshops, and a 10-day online challenge were tested to change micro habits around waste.

“I used to practice waste segregation earlier. I stopped when we moved homes a year ago. I never got back to it. Participating in the 10-day Sort-It Online challenge and seeing my son attend the DIY workshop and play the board game in the Zero Waste carnival organized in my housing society have given me the nudge I needed to start sorting my waste. In fact, I am going to stop procrastinating and ask my housing society’s management committee to set up a plastic bottle-crushing unit for us.”

– Farah Bookwala, parent and Andheri (East) resident.