Want free Wi-Fi? Clean your surroundings and get free Internet

Indian students create a ‘Wi-Fi Trash Bin’ that generates a unique code for free Wi-Fi whenever someone uses it!

Two Indian commerce graduates have come up with an unique initiative that provides you with free Wi-Fi whenever you dump garbage in a dustbin. These Indian duo have created a ‘Wi-Fi Trash Bin’ that generates a unique code whenever someone dumps trash in. This code can then be availed for free Wi-Fi.

Pratik Agarwal, one of the two founders of the initiative says “When somebody dumps trash into a dustbin the bin flashes a unique code, which can be used to gain access to free Wi-Fi.”

Mumbai-based Agarwal and his partner Raj Desai, a self taught programmer, traveled extensively to many different countries like Denmark, Finland, Singapore etc and realized that apart from a difference in structure, in order to keep surroundings clean, a change in the attitude of the people was needed.

“We took a lot of help from countries like Finland, Denmark, Singapore etc and decided to build a system similar to that,” says Pratik.

They both came up with the idea during their visit to a music festival called NH7 Weekender. The music festival is spread over a large area and is full of food, drinks, music, crowd, resulting in a lot of garbage.

” …It took us six hours to find our friends. Since there was no network, we could not reach them through a phone call. It was the trigger for the idea and we thought why not provide free Wi-Fi to people using hotspots,” says Pratik.

The driving force behind their innovative project was to keep the place clean and help in connecting with their friends.

As of now, the self-funded experiment is supported by operator MTS and has proved to be a success at the various Weekender Festivals held in Bangalore, Kolkata and Delhi, however, it is not functional at the moment.

The duo said that they have received queries from GAIL and currently talks are in due process. To bring about a behavioral change among people, the founders want to set up network of Wi-Fi bins.

“We wanted to change the attitude of the people and how things are structured, thus affecting an individual’s behavior,” says Raj Desai.

Even though, the venture is not operational now, the aim is to satisfy the need for the internet while keeping the environment clean and bringing about a behavioral redesign among people.

“… We want to work more for it,” says Pratik.

Recently displayed at “Networked India”, a unique initiative by Ericsson and CNN-IBN, the venture aims to recognize and facilitate clutter-breaking innovations in the field of mobility and connectivity.

Thanks to my researcher, Judy ~