E-Pushcart pilot for waste collection launched in Pune
E-Pushcart pilot for waste collection launched in Pune
Once ignored for scrounging through mixed waste on the city’s peripheries, waste pickers of Pune pioneered Pune’s decentralised, user-fee based waste collection system using non-motorised push carts. Now, that very push cart is set for a pathbreaking innovation.
The Pune Municipal Corporation & SWaCH Cooperative run model includes 4,000 waste pickers, mostly women, providing daily doorstep waste collection service to over 40 lakh citizens (68% of city) in Pune. They collect 1,500+ tons of segregated waste daily, recycling 200+ tons of dry waste, composting 21 tons of wet waste at source, saving the city an estimated ₹113 crores annually. Their work ensures 37% plastic recovery, almost thrice the national average.
Use of manual push-carts has ensured a highly decentralized, segregated, doorstep waste collection mechanism, which ensures highest levels of recycling (3x mechanised systems) and highest livelihoods (4 times mechanized systems), while reducing SWM related costs and environmental emissions substantially. However, this arduous, heavy, perennial work, leads to physical stress, occupational hazards and difficult working conditions for waste pickers.
Kashtakari Panchayat, through support from Tata Motors and Social Alpha, will be electrifying 150 pushcarts with the aim to reduce the physical strain and drudgery of daily waste collection. Accelero Vehicles, a Delhi-based start-up has designed and retrofitted the pushcarts for the pilot. The electric kits have been designed to fit the existing manual pushcarts, with inputs from SWaCH waste pickers to fine-tune to design.
Tata Motors and Kashtakari Panchayat have collaborated to improve the quality of lives of the waste pickers community in Pune and PCMC. This initiative is part of the overall objective of improving quality of life and providing dignity to the community of waste pickers advancing the larger vision of Tata Motors CSR and Affirmative Action Programme.
The prototype electric kits will be retrofitted on 150 waste pickers’ push carts (5% of the 3000 pushcarts used by SWaCH waste pickers) and deployed for a 3-month pilot study to assess their impact. If successful, this innovation can be applied to manual pushcarts used by sweepers and other waste workers across the country. The pilot assessment will be conducted in close coordination with the waste pickers and the municipality, with the aim of taking this innovation to scale.
A specialised training module for the electric push carts has been developed, including considerations for trainees who may be illiterate or have no prior driving experience. Kashtakari Panchayat will train waste pickers, issue training certificates and handhold waste pickers through the pilot. The removable battery is capable of powering 15 Km on a single charge at walking speeds of 2-3 kmph and a maximum load capacity of 300 Kg. These will be deployed in Dhankawadi, Bibwewadi, Wanawadi, Sinhagad Road, Kondhwa, and Warje areas.
The pilot was inaugurated by Prithviraj B P, IAS, Additional Municipal Commissioner (PMC) and Sandip Kadam, Deputy Commissioner, Solid Waste Management (PMC) at the Pune Municipal Corporation Main Building on 6 May, 2025.
In Pune, all our life we have used non-motorised push carts for waste collection. Although it has secured work for women like us, the heavy loads makes it especially difficult to navigate steep areas. Over time, this has also caused health issues like severe pain in the knees, waist, and legs for many waste pickers. With this electrification, there’s a big sense of relief for us women and elderly waste pickers. We hope this will ease our burden significantly”,
said Vidya Naiknaware, Board Member, SWaCH.
When we talk about sustainability, we often overlook the role of manual labour and waste pickers. As we work towards a cleaner environment in Pune, we also want to ensure that the waste pickers, who are deeply involved in the city’s climate efforts are supported and have the ease of work they deserve. To make this possible we are supporting the deployment of 75 of these E-Pushcarts, informed Apurva Mujumdar, from Social Alpha.
Just like army personnel protect us at the borders, waste pickers protect us from the harmful effects of unmanaged waste. We’ve always aimed to support them and improve their lives. The E-push cart project is one such step—designed to ease their burden and protect them from health issues like arthritis that arise from pushing heavy loads every day, shared Anant Jain, Founder of Ebike.
Kashtakari Panchayat is dedicated to empowering informal waste pickers and their collectives by enhancing their livelihoods and working conditions. In this essence, we are proud to launch this pilot of e-pushcarts for Pune’s waste pickers in collaboration with Tata Motors, Social Alpha and Ebike. We believe this initiative, directly benefiting frontline workers, will demonstrate the value of integrating technology to alleviate the burdens of waste pickers’ labor and has the potential to impact waste workers across India, said Lubna Anantkrishnan, Managing Trustee, Kashtakari Panchayat.
The electrification of pushcarts is a significant step forward, both as an innovation that directly supports waste pickers and advances the broader goals of the Swachh Bharat Mission. It reflects how sustainability and dignity of labour can go hand in hand, and we look forward to the success of the first of its kind e-vehicle for waste collection pilot in Pune, stated Harshad Barde, Director, SWaCH Cooperative.
