Hyderabad, now make the best out of waste at Sriram Kakarla's TrashMakes at Jxtapose 

There are six of bins available at the shed in Jxtapose which have segregated waste 
The number of bins available at the shed which have segregated waste
The number of bins available at the shed which have segregated waste

When was the last time you felt like creating something with your hands? Maybe something decorative for your house like a decoupage bottle or a small table for your room or even something as simple as a pouch to carry your stuff in? There's some sort of satisfaction you feel by the end of it. Through TrashMakesSriram Kakarla has made it a little easier for folks in Hyderabad to feel that satisfaction. 

Having visited Malaysia for training in Lego Serious Play methodology a little more than two years ago, Kakarla has been conducting corporate workshops at Cognizant, Qualcomm and other companies using Lego pieces. He creates learning environments for employees and helps them build their ideas through Lego. But he felt the need to do something more. "It's okay to build things out of Lego, but they need to apply design thinking to build a product as well," says Kakarla who has studied in Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering and Technology. And his research in this area began. 

Kakarla feels that only a small section of society, mainly artists, are looking to buy upcycled products

Kakarla came across Makerspace in cities like Bengaluru where tools and raw materials are readily available for people to use and make the products they have in mind. He spoke to several founders of these places to gain a better understanding. But his research also told him that while the cost of tools can be recovered, raw materials can prove to be quite expensive. That's when he thought of replacing raw materials with trash — e-waste, used glass bottles, discarded wood and even automotive waste. And these raw materials he sourced from Toter, Hyderabad's digitally-enabled recycling services. "All these have been collected and segregated into different bins under a shed in Jxtapose and anyone can use these materials to build the product they ideate," he informs. Thus, he started the TrashMakes. 

At work: The TrashMakers' space at Jxtapose opened to the public about a month and a half ago

"When one uses waste material instead of regular raw materials, the task to create becomes a little more cumbersome. Imagine having to use randomly-sized blocks of wood instead of custom-cut wood for your product. But that shouldn't stop us," says Kakarla. In this regard, Kakarla organised his first workshop on September 2 where he taught participants to upcycle glass bottles. There were about ten participants, some of whom are upcyclers, and the unanimous verdict was that they all cherished the session. Coming up are another four workshops in the next few months which will involve upcycling floppy disks, the inner tube of tyres, waste fabric and more. 

He advised that we must never send waste to a landfill without segregating it. Because by doing this, we make the waste beyond usable

With a mini table made of glass bottles at home, a laptop cover and a pouch made of upcycled cloth and more, Kakarla understands the value of using upcycled products. His aim in the future is to connect with different companies to help them out with their own waste. "We want individual companies to solve their own waste management problems through upcycling, which could be one of their solutions," he concludes.

For more, click on facebook.com/Trashmakes   

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