There is always a turning point in everyone’s life. For Vani Murthy, that happened as long ago as in 2007, when an acquaintance told her that if one tonne of paper waste could be collected and given for recycling, about 17 trees would be saved.
“That statistics sunk into me,” says Vani Murthy. Vani is a major sustainable and zero-waste influencer with over a hundred thousand followers on Instagram. With extensive videos on composting tips, instructions and other zero-waste hacks such as bio enzymes and zero-waste recipes, Vani Murthy has become a part of several households which have begun to adopt such sustainable practices in their lives.
Rather than mere words, Vani believes in the power of in-person demonstrations, which is why since the beginning of her journey, she rolled out several campaigns where she can demonstrate the simplicity of the practices herself: “I love doing demos. I just don’t talk. You have to showcase things, people capture what they see more than what they hear.”
Growing up, Vani was a shy and quiet kid. Born in Bengaluru, she moved to Hyderabad and came back to Bengaluru after marriage. “I was a homemaker, a stay-at-home person in the real sense,” she says. “What I am today is completely opposite to what I was.” She calls it a paradigm shift and holds her sustainability-journey responsible for the changes that she is proud of.
It all began when she joined the Resident Welfare Association after her kids grew up. She was reluctant to meet new people and engage in a community, but that soon changed as she met more and more enthusiastic people who were in the same sphere as her. She also involved the kids in her apartment building in collecting and organising recyclable wastes and Sunday campaigns, and weekly roadshows were organised.
She was a part of the Wealth Out of Waste programme and not much later, she was going door-to-door giving bags for segregation and collection of wastes so that they could be recycled. She met waste management expert C Srinivasan, also known as Vellore Srinivasan, at a workshop in Vellore and learned about composting. Even though her first attempt was a horrible failure, a visit to the landfill in Bengaluru forced her to swear that no more of her waste would be sent there.
It was at a seminar conducted by Srinivasan back in 2007 on Solid Waste Management that the Solid Waste Management Round Table co-founded by Vani Murthy was formed. The SWMRT has organised several campaigns, such as Swacha Graha, 2 Bin 1 Bag, Trashonomics, etc. The main focus of the organisation is to decentralise waste management. “When you decentralise waste management, you put the onus on the citizen for segregation and to reduce the waste they generate,” Vani says.
The SWMRT also went to court to and mandated the segregation of waste at source in Bengaluru city. The SWMRT involves other parties in its schemes and plans — such as the citizens, the vendors and works alongside the BBMP, connecting and managing the flow of waste through different sectors. The target focus of the group is to hold the citizens accountable for their own waste; get the citizens to say, “My waste is my responsibility,” she says.
Vani likes sharing pieces from her life on Instagram. She is very happy with the connection she has formed and the engagement she gets from like-minded people. “Every time they say something nice, it motivates me to do something better,” she says. “When you are in this space and you meet people who are highly evolved and already doing a lot, it is very inspiring.”
It has taken her over 10 years to get where she is now. Zero-waste life is not something you can give up, later on, it’s a life-long journey. Over a period of time, you start looking at how you can raise your own bar, she says. About the many eco-friendly tips and sustainable options she suggests online, she says, “I learn from people, or I get motivated to give it a try and keep at it till I get it right. I feel so good that I am not using those chemicals anymore. Those shampoos and conditioners that I used to buy, I am no longer buying.”
Vani didn’t struggle to pick up the digital world even though she was introduced to it much later in life. She always loved to take pictures and share them, so much so that her children had nicknamed her the Non-stop-photo-clicking-evil-mom-lady. Since she always was a fan of clicking pictures and sharing them, the process continued down the sustainability road as well. She doesn’t consider herself so much of a writer, so she lets her pictures (with small captions) talk for themselves. Social Media such as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, all became wonderful platforms, she says. If she gets stuck somewhere, her niece is always ready to help. “I do take help if it is available, but usually, I try to figure it out by myself. Many people ask me if there’s someone who is managing my account,” she laughs.
For Vani, 2020 has been a blessing. The virtual space allowed her entry into numerous workshops and households like never before. “I have never done so many workshops in the entire 10 years the way I did it in the lockdown,” she says.”So many more people have taken up sustainable measures and practices and even companies have reached out to me.”
Before the world had fully plunged into the reach that was virtually possible before lockdown happened, Vani had started reducing the number of events that she participated in and the workshops that she conducted. The long hours of travel had started to take a toll on her health, but thanks to the internet, she is very happy with the immense and greater opportunities that are open.
There is a certain cadence in the way Vani handles the manure which she has converted from her kitchen waste. There is a modest pride that rings in her voice when she talks about the difference she has helped create. Vani, through her Instagram videos, make the processes involved in a sustainable lifestyle look so easy and beautiful. In one of her recent Instagram videos, she urges us to make a commitment to this planet and give back to it what we have taken from it.
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