GURUGRAM: With Navratri, Dussehra and Diwali coming one after another, many Gurugram homes are about to do their annual deep clean. That usually means piles of old newspapers, broken chargers, outgrown clothes and, after the pujas, flowers and other religious items that nobody wants to throw in the bin. A network of drop points run by the citizens' group iamgurgaon is built for exactly this.
The group calls them Samadhaan Hub units. Its main Samadhaan Hub page frames the problem first. It says 75 per cent of Gurugram's waste ends up in landfills, only 9 per cent is recycled or composted, and just 18 per cent of households segregate waste at source. It adds that almost 30 per cent of what residents throw away is recyclable.
The page also describes the strain on the Bandhwari landfill, which it says was designed for about 1,200 tonnes a day but receives far more. It says the processing plant there stopped working in 2013 and that over 3.5 million tonnes of legacy waste had piled up by 2021. Those are the group's figures, and they explain why it pushes for drop-off points close to homes.
The first hub grew out of an art project. In 2019, the group, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram and Artpilgrim Live ran Where Does It Go?, an installation series in which artist Arunkumar HG and twelve local artists turned discarded material from homes and schools into artworks. The Samadhaan Hub followed as a place to act on that awareness.
According to the group's pages, each unit accepts paper, plastic, metal, e-waste, glass, clothes, and expired and non-expired medicines. The unit pages list them as open every day except national holidays, from 8 am to 5 pm. Readers who are not sure whether a particular item is accepted can ask the staff at the unit before unloading the car.
There is a small reward too. The pages say that for every 10 kg of dry waste you drop off, you get a reusable bag free. That works out well for a household clearing a year of newspapers before Diwali.
The six listed locations and where your waste goes
The Phase 1 page lists six locations. The original Samadhaan Hub is in Block D, near Khushboo Chowk, Sector 26A. The Mandir Samadhaan Hub is at the Prachin Hanuman Aur Shani Dev Mandir, off Sunset Boulevard.
Two units are listed on the Golf Course Road side. Creek 56 Samadhaan Hub is near Metro Pillar 226 on Golf Course Road, opposite Early Years Pathways School, and Samadhaan Hub Sector 56 is at Aravali Creek 56, near Kendriya Vihar. Both pages link the same map pin, so check it before going.
Two more are on the Badshahpur Forest Corridor. One is listed at Sector 48, and the other is on the South Peripheral Road near Tatvam Villas, Dhani, in Sector 69. Some of the text also describes a unit at the corridor entrance in Badshahpur, Sector 72, so confirm on the map which pin is closest to you.
The mandir unit is the one to note for the festive season. The group says it was set up for puja items that people hesitate to throw away, such as flowers, incense sticks, cloth, terracotta idols, coconut shells, sacred threads and decorations. Its partners give these materials a second life rather than sending them to a landfill.
The pages explain what happens to each kind of waste. Everything is sorted on site and passed to partner groups. Reusable books and stationery go to Free Pathshala, which runs free classes for underprivileged children, and paper that can only be recycled is sold to local recyclers, with the money also going to Free Pathshala.
Soft plastic goes to Avacayam, which the group says turns it into gift items, while hard plastic goes to local recyclers who use it in road building. Flowers and other festive waste go to Ananda Vrinda, which makes Holi colours and incense sticks from them.
E-waste goes to NAMO, where repairable devices are refurbished and the rest is dismantled so parts can be reused. Expired medicines are disposed of under government guidelines, while unexpired medicines are donated to Maanas School. Clothes, toys and other essentials go to GOONJ.
The main page gave a running total of 816,927.25 kg of dry waste diverted from landfill across all units when Dalimss News read it on 5 October 2026. Older unit pages show lower totals, which suggests they are updated at different times.
A few practical points help. Sort before you leave home, keep e-waste and medicines in separate bags, and remove food residue from plastic and glass. Wet kitchen waste is not on the accepted list, so do not bring it. If you have a large load, such as furniture or bulk cartons, call the group first because the pages do not say whether there is a size limit.
The group says the hubs have been handed over to the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram, but it still lists them on its own site. Readers who walk the corridors can combine a drop with a morning outing. Dalimss News has guides to the Chakkarpur Wazirabad Bundh and the Aravali Biodiversity Park, both restored by the same group.
This feature uses only iamgurgaon's own pages and does not audit the recycling chain described there.
Dalimss News did not receive payment or any other consideration for this article. It is independent editorial coverage.
