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A sweet gift for good garbage manners

Mumbai boys develop high-tech garbage collector * Lonavala installs the bins ahead of intl film fest * Thane Municipal Corporation too mulls using it

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Ganesh Jadhav and Abhijit Deokar (in centre) with their innovative garbage bin
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Taking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's two pet projects – Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and Make in India – to the next level, a group of boys in the state have come up with an innovative garbage-collector which gifts chocolates once you drop garbage in it.

The 'Techbin', as the developers call it, has already caught the fancy of Lonavala municipal council members and seven bins have been installed in the hill station, which is set to host an international film festival from September 1-5.

The bins have been provided for free to the council though the team is incurring Rs 45,000 per bin as manufacturing cost. Their revenue will be coming from advertisements, which will find place on the upper panel of the bins.

Incidentally, the film festival organisers are the first to advertise on the bins.

"We are happy to be associated with the Techbin team as their first client. This tie-up is significant as we are also hosting the film fest for the first time," said festival organiser Riju Bajaj. Film-makers from across the world are slated to attend the event, which will showcase more than 50 films. Govind Nihlani, Shyam Benegal and Ketan Mehta are among guests.

"Incentives and rewards work magically, especially when we seek people's participation for issues as basic as keeping our public places clean," Ganesh Jadhav, one of the entrepreneurs, said.

Lauding the innovation, Sachin Pawar, CEO of Lonavala municipal council told dna, "With the sweet gift, the techbins will encourage a healthy waste disposal habit among public and help keep the hill town with its huge influx of tourists clean. We have ordered 10 bins though only seven have been delivered till now. The one installed outside a convent school is getting huge attraction."

Enthusiastic Pawar has recommended the techbins to Mahabaleshwar hill station municipal council as well, where he was posted before being shifted to Lonavala recently.

Thane municipal corporation is also evaluating a proposal to get the tech-bins for the city. Through mouth publicity, even the Riga city council (Latvia, Europe) has also made some inquiries regarding bin.

The boys had earlier installed the bins at a few housing societies and market places to see people's response. "The circuit is designed in such a way that it dispenses a chocolate after every five minute. The time lag is given after much thought to curb its misuse," smiles Ganesh.

Ganesh Jadhav and Abhijit Deokar, both 28 and from Mumbai, started working on the bin a year ago. Ganesh is a post graduate in management studies and Abhijit holds a degree in hotel management. Since neither of them has technology background, they roped in Sachin Agashe to design the prototype.

The Techbin team has also developed a mobile phone application that can be used to search the Techbins installed at different locations with the help of Google map and GPS.

Ganesh explains, "When a user comes closer to Techbin, he/she can see the QR code attached on dustbin. By scanning the QR code through mobile app, user will get free coupons. If the users are lucky enough to get their litter detected by sensors, then they will get free chocolates also. On the back side of that free chocolate, user also gets a lucky code which he/she can type in the app to get some additional exciting rewards."

The group has also developed a food vending machine, which is currently put up at the Bhartiya Vidyapeeth.

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