A drive in the drivewayAshwini H. Pandit’s driveway at Vasudeva Nagar in Thiruvanmiyur makes room for unlikely occupants, one Saturday every month: washed milk covers, biscuit wrappers, Tetra Paks, cartons, oldclothesand discarded electronics items. They are deposited in the space by neighbours, around 15 of them, who share Ashwini’s faith in recycling dry waste.For a year and half now, Ashwini runs this citizens-led dry waste collection drive. “Garbage all over the city and dirty roads triggered me,” she says. “I feel anything can be used. It has a life and should not go into the bin.”The collected waste is passed on toorganisationsthat further segregate it before sending it to recyclers. For Ashwini, the issue is less about the absence of collection systems and more about everyday habits. “Segregation is the key,” she notes. “If everything is mixed, nobody would be willing to do it.” She hopes more households will begin with small changes like washing and drying recyclable waste, composting kitchen scraps and carrying reusable bags. “We are not even one percent there yet. We have a long way to go,” says Ashwini.Residents in and around Thiruvanmiyur can drop off their segregated dry waste at Ashwini’s monthly collection drive. For details, call 96633 40341The power of local engagementSreevidhya Ashok, a resident of Vijayanagar in Velachery learnt the ropes of community waste management with Residents of Kasturbanagar Association (ROKA) volunteering with it for six years, being particularly engaged with its citywide collection drives. And one day, she decided it was essential to bring the initiative closer, make dry waste collection a monthly, local exercise.Since last month, Sreevidhya has been hosting a collection every last Saturday. “People were eagerly waiting for the yearly drive, but they found it difficult to store recyclables for so long,” she said. “So we thought, why not conduct it every month?”The response to the first drive validated the move: nearly 300 kg of material was collected, with reusable items accounting for nearly 70%of the collection. The initiative, coordinated through the apartment’s WhatsApp groups, has also nudged residents towards more mindful disposal practices. Instead of throwing away batteries, keyboards or tube lights, many now messageSreevidhyato ask where they can be responsibly discarded. To Sreevidhya, that change inbehaviouris more significant than the volume of waste collected. She believes the foundation for sustainable living must be laid early. “Children should be educated, not just at school, but at hometooso they know what can be recycled and why it should never end up as mixed waste,” she says.For details, email sreevidhyaashok03@gmail.comMake it hyperlocal if you canG. Saranya is guided by a simple but effective principle: waste should not have to travel farther than the people willing to recycle it. And this belief has led her to facilitate a dry waste collection drive within her sprawling residential community inPallikaranai.Having regularly dropped off old clothes, footwear and other household discards at citizen-led collection drives while accompanying her mother for medical appointments, Saranyarealisedthat her own community lacked the avenue for responsible disposal of items such as worn-out school uniforms, tattered clothes, toys and footwear.Rather than spearheading the initiative herself, Saranya chose to play the role of a facilitator.Recognisingthe scale of her community, home to more than 2,000 families, she reached out to residents’ association members and introduced them toorganisersalready conducting collection drives across Chennai.The proposal is now taking shape, with discussions under way toorganisea dedicated collection drive within the community. Saranya hopes it will evolve into a regular,neighbourhood-level effort, making responsible disposal as convenient as taking out the household waste. “People do not have time to go somewhere and drop these things. Ifit is a monthly drive,they will start collecting everything,” she says.Other initiatives*At Raja Street, Mandaveli, a fortnightly dry waste collection drive is conducted in collaboration with Kabadiwalla Connect; it takes place on a Saturday. For details about nearby drop-off points, call 99400 56069*Founder of Zero Waste Initiatives at Boutique Bougainvillea in Velachery, Sherin Joseph conducts a monthly waste collection drive every fourth Sunday (2 to 5 p.m.) since January 2025. For details, call 98410 75367* At RK Nagara in Mandaveli, a community-led waste collection initiative has been running for the past 7–8 years, organised in collaboration with recycling partners. It is held once every 4–5 months. For details, call 70108 48668* Citizen-led waste management initiatives in MRC Nagar have been active since 2013, dry waste collection drives are conducted once or twice a year, with designated building-level collection points like gyms and common rooms used for drop-offs. For details, call 96000 47586* A shed installed in Valmiki Nagar nearly seven years ago has been repurposed as a community drop-off point since the first waste collection drive was organised in August 2021. For the past two years, collection drives have been held once every three months, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For details, call 98402 04192