Pakistan Sustainability Network is an emerging network of action-oriented people and groups and Wastebusters who has a huges Facebook membership embrace and promote sustainability in all cross-sections of society. PSN mission is to launch a strong nation-wide grassroot advocacy on two levels. First, to launch and promote already-exisiting low-cost easy- to-adopt action items which are currently undertaken at an individual or small-group level regarding environmental sustainability (waste reduction, recycling, electrical use, etc), as well as local, medium start-up initiatives, and commercial work.

Listen to a podcast with Asif Farooki concerning some of Wastebusters’ projects:

Many PSN volunteers participated in the door to door visits in Pakistan for donations in regards to the Pakistan flood relief efforts. People donated generously to help the flood refugees in Charsadda and D G Khan. The group sent out a special thanks to Punjab University, Pakistan Sustainability Network volunteers and Mrs Tahir (for 38 tents). They thanked Afia Mansoor and Faisal Rana and all the people from all over the world who have donated.

The group under the leadership of Asif Farooki and Nimra Amjad Archer were able to prepare food baskets of 100 kgs (Flour, Ghee, Sugar, Daals, Tea, Milk, Water, Rice etc.) enough food for one family of six to sustain for a month. They have provided also tents with individual costs of Rs. 7000 ($82 USD); Foods costs Rs. 5000 ($59 USD). Each donor receives a receipt for contributions.

Sustainable Pakistan Network is also running a clothing drive for flood victims. The clothes will be washed, ironed, packed and delivered to TCF and UN relief camps. Interested parties can contact locally in Pakistan at phone 03007043094 (or +92 3007043094) for details on how and where to donate.

Urgently needed are food items and tents which can be dropped off at the Lahore Office: 7 Shami Road, Cantt, Lahore, Pakistan.

Volunteers who wish to help at the PSN camps and partner camps can email: nimra@sustainablepakistan.org

To donate online or from abroad: http://sustainablepakistan.org/2010-flood-relief/

To donate from Pakistan:
MCB bank LTD, Fortress Stadium Branch, Lahore.
A/C number: 1834-2
branch code: 0963

SustainablePakistan and Wastebusters’ Nimra Amjad Archer and Asif Farooki update you via Facebook and Twitter. Join, follow and participate in their exciting projects where efforts make a positive difference, reduced crime, job creation, a place for entrepreneurs, and make a greener Pakistan. Businesses within Pakistan can apply to be among the Green Businesses in Pakistan at http://sustainablepakistan.org/green-directory.

Techistan interviewed Wastebusters (Pakistan) CEO Asif Farooki to learn more about PSN, WasteBusters and the work he and Nimra Amjad Archer (a founding director of PSN) are involved in. Listen to the podcast and read the transcript below.

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Suzanne  Bowen: Welcome to the DIDX and Techistan Podcast Channel where we bring you the expertise and inspiration of leaders around the world. Today we have with us Mr. Asif Farooqi. He is, for example, the Chairman of a program called Wastebusters and also Pakistan Sustainability Network. We believe we will also be joined by Ms. Nimra Amjad who works with the group in community and development areas.

Tell us please Mr. Farooki about Wastebusters and how it is involved with the Pakistan Flood Relief Efforts.

Asif Farooki: Thank you, Suzanne. Very grateful to you for having us on this podcast, especially at this time when we are all running around trying to get many people motivated to join in.

Wastebusters is primarily a community-based waste management organization. We started in 1996 as a small organization with six donkey carts, collecting garbage from the community. Since then, we have expanded into a full-fledged organization with operations in eight cities collecting wastes from communities by motivating them and turning the wastes into resource by recycling the wastes.  We work to create jobs. We work to sustain the projects on our own.

Suzanne Bowen: You mentioned eight cities where Wastebusters is working. Would you name them?

Asif Farooki: The major cities in Pakistan … Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Karachi, Gujarat, Sarghoda, ? and Quetta.

Suzanne Bowen: This is truely a win-win because on one hand, you’re helping people to take charge of their own communities, to be a part of cleaning up. Then you try to reuse what is cleaned up and putting people to work at the same time.

Asif Farooki: Our project has been very successful. We’ve been blessed with many awards based on this concept. Just to give you a little idea on how we work…

We go to communities which is typically a union council, 4 to 5 households and we have coined a term “ecopreneur.” It is someone in the community who is willing to invest a little capital in their own business. We train them. We get them organized by hiring 10 local youth. They are normally high school graduates, male and female. We call them social motivators.

Each social motivator is given about 500 houses. They go door to door to try and convince people to register for the campaign. The households who sign up are now green by becoming part of the campaign. They would use garbage bags to store their garbage daily.

The social motivators each have two sanitary workers under them who collect the garbage from the homes daily. It is the social motivator’s job to make sure the waste is removed. The whole idea is that if we pick up garbage from the homes… unlike you in the USA, we have a lot of garbage dumps around because it is typical for people here to just throw garbage out in the open.

If we pick it up from the home and take it to a proper recycling point, then we do not have to see all this trash around. We take it to the recycling plant, sort it, tag for compost and other recyclable categories. We are also producing RDF (refuse drive fuel) for producing energy from waste.

We collect money, a service charge from each household, about 50 rupees, about half a USD per month for this service. This money goes toward the salaries of the social motivator and the sanitary workers. The ecopreneur collects all this waste in a truck or van and brings it to a recycling plant where we pay him by weighing the garbage, about 300 rupees per ton for the waste that they collect for us.

We in essence, have created this business for small companies or entrepreneurs who are interested in getting involved with waste management. This means both income-generating and waste cleanup activities.

Suzanne Bowen: Exactly. I’ve been to Pakistan many times, and I remember that it is typical for people to pile up trash in a various areas. This is new and cleans up the appearance, builds pride. I can see where it may even help to reduce crime.

Asif Farooki: Certainly. A lot of these are whiling away their time after school. Sometimes they’ve got nothing better to do. This is a positive activity for them rather than negative.

Suzanne Bowen: How did you guys get involved in the flood relief efforts? Please tell us about that. Many around the world want to help but they want to make sure their money donated is being used in ways that will help in the most productive way, those who have suffered. Please tell us. You are there!

Asif Farooki: This is not an area of our expertise. We jumped into this to help at the beginning because we felt that no one was moving around 2 or 3 months ago. We saw it on TV. We work some in Peshawar and other parts of the northern areas which is where the floods hit first. The sheer magnitude of the problem … it was so big and shocking that nobody really knew what to do.

We felt this was an area. Some of the communities that we work in were hit badly. So went in there thinking we could provide food and other kinds of relief. We set up a camp in Charsadda. This is in the mountains. You probably been there, Suzanne. You don’t see floods normally in the mountains. Normally this happens nears seas and rivers.

The water level was up 14 feet high. People’s entire homes … we went to streets … we put pictures up on our website where  everyone can see.

We were out in a motor boat as transportation in the area. The motor boat rudder got stuck on something. We wondered what happened. We suddenly realized the rudder was stuck in the top of a tree. We were on top of a tree.

Let me draw a picture for you of how it works. Most of the people in Pakistan are poor. They live in small villages and deal in agriculture. A common system is that people put their grains like wheat and rice, the essential food items… they stock up when the crops come in. They stock up for the entire year.

When the floods came, this washed away the entire food stocks from the people’s homes. This even happened to the rich people. Suddenly all were without shelter and food. The winter is coming up, so even clothing will be an issue.

We saw that all needed immediately food and shelter to survive.

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Nimra Amjad Archer is a founding director of PSN (an environmental scientist and writer. Her claim to fame is her sustainable wedding in June 2010 in Lahore. Her interests are eco-literacy, sustainable fabrics (especially hand-looms), local and traditional solutions to environmental problems, engaging youth, mentoring them and travelling. She’s working for a recycling company while studying for her degree as well as working on the Clean Pakistan project.

Asif Farooki is the Chief Executive of Wastebusters, a project of Pakistan Sustainable Network.