By Kumar Kalyandurg, Secretary, Green Circle, Bangalore

Bangalore: Rail Wheel Factory in Yelahanka, Bangalore, is a premier manufacturing unit of Indian Railways established in 1984 in a sprawling campus. It produces high-quality steel wheels, axles, and wheelsets for Indian Railways. It is a fully government-owned enterprise under the Ministry of Railways. The factory has been organising environment-related campaigns like Swachhata Pakwada, World Earth Day and World Environment Day events. Dr V Selvarajan was called as the guest speaker on 26.5.26 at their TTE Auditorium to address their 70-plus Trainee engineers. Using a PowerPoint presentation on BEYOND BINS, he highlighted the importance of the new Solid Waste Management Rules 2026, which came into force from 1^st April 2026. The importance of the present rules as against the previous rules enacted in 2026 is the envisaged role of Bulk Waste generators (BWG), which generate more than 100 KG solid waste in a day. He added, “This includes big apartments, gated communities and institutions and is expected to reduce the dumping of waste in landfills to the tune of 30%” He also emphasized, “While the bins had been increased to two types from the existing two types, namely dry, wet, sanitary and special category (hazardous) wastes, the focus does not stop in increasing the number of bins”. He titled this talk “BEYOND BINS” to emphasize a circular model that focuses on recycling and recovering reusable items from waste, moving beyond just source segregation. This proposed approach represents a significant shift from a linear economy to a circular economy. The workshop, attended by 70 trainee engineers, was organised by Environment Officer, Sandesh Kini, Senior Section Engineer, Environment Cell,  Rail Wheel Factory, Yelahanka, as part of their environment day celebration. At the end, Dr Selvarajan and  Kumar Kalyandurg of Green Circle were felicitated for their works in the field of environment by Mahantesh, Works Manager, Quality Systems, Rail Wheel Factory.