Bengaluru’s ongoing struggle with wet waste and overflowing landfills received attention this week after Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw endorsed a homegrown technological innovation aimed at easing the city’s garbage crisis.
Mazumdar-Shaw shared a video online of an AI-powered kitchen robot known as Chewie, describing it as a promising step for managing household waste. Posting the clip, she wrote: “Wow! Innovation for Bengaluru’s home-produced wet garbage.”
The robot, developed in Bengaluru, was designed to handle domestic wet waste such as vegetable peels, food scraps and leftovers. Using artificial intelligence, Chewie digested the material and converted it into nutrient-rich soil within hours. The device also eliminated the need to keep rotting waste in bins, thereby avoiding the odour and discomfort usually associated with household organic garbage.
The footage of the unit in operation was widely shared online, bringing visibility to the compact machine.
Following Mazumdar-Shaw’s post, interest in the product increased sharply, with social media users debating its value and possible applications.
One user commented: “Wow. Brilliant! I think he should make these large machines and sell it to municipalities. Municipalities must pay house owners for depositing waste as this waste can be converted to organic manure.”
A user remarked, "Great idea. But let’s stop slapping AI on everything. Just talk about the use cases and benefits. That’d suffice."
Other responses were less enthusiastic, questioning how artificial intelligence was applied in the device.
"What role does AI play here?" a user questioned. Another wrote, "Wow it's a nice machine, but for god's sake stop using AI term everywhere, it's just a machine with sensors and moving parts, there is nothing AI about it."
The endorsement came in the context of Mazumdar-Shaw’s repeated calls for improvements in the city’s civic systems. She had previously urged the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar to act decisively on infrastructure issues, stating that Bengaluru could be positioned as a global city if public services were overhauled.
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