These startups are making CASH FROM TRASH
Getting rid of garbage isn't every entrepreneur's first choice
of work but the handful working on responsible waste management say it's easy
pickings
Keys, old mobile phones, CDs, remote controls -almost every
house has them hidden away in a cupboard. And that's the forgotten gold that
hundreds of startups tackling waste management are eyeing.
Estimates put the waste generated per day in India at 0.15
million tonnes. Market research company NOVONOUS pegs the waste management
market in India at $13.6 billion by 2025, with an annual growth rate of 7.17%.
Although sustainable waste management is yet to become an organised industry
here, entrepreneurs are making moolah from waste.
For Achitra Borgohain, it was the struggle to get rid of e-waste
while shifting homes that sparked the idea. He joined NSRCEL, the incubator in
IIM-Bengaluru, with a vague idea that transformed into Binbag. For 18 months,
he went door-todoor picking up e-waste in his car. “The logistics and economics
of serving individual houses doesn't work out. We received enquiries from
apartment complexes concerned about responsible waste disposal,“ he said.
Focussing on bulk generators, Binbag offers a marketplace to bridge the gap
between waste generators and processors. With over 80 e-waste recyclers and
processors listed, Borgohain and his co-founder K C Bhushan have collected 60
tonnes of e-waste in the last 30 months. They run a dry waste collection centre
for the Bengaluru corporation and collect four to five tonnes every day.
Many other entrepreneurs have hit upon the idea after seeing the
importance given to waste management abroad. “In the UK, waste is considered a
resource and the work is referred to as material management. In India, we are
still fighting stigma,“ said Gaurav Joshi, who runs ExtraCarbon with Anant
Avinash.
While doing his initial research, he discovered that recyclers
were importing waste to run their plants. “I wondered why they had to bring
waste from outside when we have so much. So we decided to be an Uber of sorts
for e-waste,“ said Joshi. ExtraCarbon has over 300 kabadiwallas (scrap dealers)
registered on the platform in six cities. One can place on a request on their
app, website, through social media or give them a call and a kabadiwalla or
Green Superhero' will be sent to collect waste. Those contributing waste can
take cash or collect credits that can be used to shop online or deposited in a
Paytm wallet. Joshi's work doesn't end there. The waste is collected from the
kabadiwalla, transported to the warehouse, weighed and segregated before being
handed over to recyclers. “On average, we collect 40kg per home per pickup,“
said Joshi.
Collection is just one part of the problem. Akshay Jain and his
Namo e-waste have gone a step further and set up a plant with an installed
capacity of over 35,000 metric tonnes. “We deal with any kind of e-waste and
quote rates based on the condition of the material. Refurbished things are sold
through online channels and distribution networks. The products have a standard
warranty of 90 days,“ said Jain.
He takes care of the end-to-life process, or extracting metal
content and selling it as a commodity and removing the hazardous content before
sending it to a foundry .“Old CRT monitors have hazardous glass and sulphur
content. We extract these, store them as per safe disposal norms and transport
them to dumping sites approved by the government,“ he said.
With an investment of $2 million, Jain's startup processes 10
tonnes of waste every day . In 2016, 30% of the material collected was
refurnished, most of them laptops, servers, desktops and mobile phones. “We are
looking to get into precious metal recovery as well but that needs superior
equipment,“ he said.
While techies are out to solve supply chain and processing
issues around waste, artists and designers offer `crafty' solutions. In the
last few years, the trend of `upcycling' has picked up. Sisters Madhvi K Pittie
and Radhika K Mittal set up Workshop Q in 2010 in Jaipur. Both come with a
finance and design background and studied upcycling and waste management as
part of their courses abroad. “We were arty since childhood. We would pick up
random things, work with it and sometimes end up with cool things,“ said Pittie.
Seven years into business, the sisters are still clear that they
will handle the procurement themselves. “We need to see what we can use. We
take rusted nuts, old CDs, aluminium sheets and panels, veneer, waste cloth.
There is no set list. If we believe we can breathe life into these `waste'
items, we take them,“ she said. They collaborate with students in design
colleges to create products, while partnering with large companies to procure
waste. They started selling these products to consumers through online and
offline channels, but are now adopting a more streamlined approach, taking only
bulk orders.
While the opportunity in waste management has been established,
its inherent challenges keep entrepreneurs away . The lack of proven models and
success stories has kept waste management from becoming a large sector. There
is the social stigma as well. When Joshi decided to set up ExtraCarbon, no one
wanted to work with him. Today , he has folks from across sectors partnering in
his mission.
“No one would consider waste management an option till they are
pushed into it. Only when you smell your trash does it hit you,“ said Borgohain
of Binbag.
Ranjani Ayyar
May 14 2017 : The Times of India (Mumbai)
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