Celebrated waste recycling service coming to Nagpur

NAGPUR: How many times has the green warrior in you thought of segregating the recyclable material from your domestic waste and then given up for the lack of time and resources? Realizing that most people would prefer to recycle their waste if the process was easier and less time-consuming, Bhopal-based engineering students Anurag Asathi and Probin Kumar have started a web-based service that allows people to sell off the scrap and ensure it is recycled.
The process begins by visiting the portal set up by the two youngsters called www.thekabadiwala.com. Customers have to fill up a form and make a request to collect specified items from their place at the time convenient for them. There is also a provision that allows one to keep track of what happened to the scrap they sold off. The service has gained much popularity in several towns of Madhya Pradesh since it began in February 2013. It would now also be available in the city as the start-up is being incubated by city-based firm Lemon Ideas.
"We saw that the municipal waste lying around our cities consisted of many things that had the potential to be recycled or reused. India produces 45 million tonnes of waste every year. Even if a fraction of this is recycled, just imagine how much we would be saving," said Asathi explaining the idea. With this, they started studying the effects recycling can have on a community that brought forth several astonishing facts and figures.
Kumar added they also observed that the waste collection and processing industry in the country being an unorganized one was going against it. "In fact, with the aim to empower the small traders, we picked up our employees from among them, trained them in using electronic weighing machines and taught them the necessary communication skills," he said.
Soon after launch in Bhopal, they started receiving requests from all over the country on the website. Subsequently, they started the service in cities like Jabalpur, Indore, Gwalior, Betul and even in Kolkata on a pilot basis. Nagpur would be the second city where full-fledged service would be available, due to the backing of Lemon Ideas. "The concept is to help to change the lives of the kabadiwalas in the country while also focusing on doing good for the environment," believes their backer Deepak Menaria.
The website also allows people to donate the amount equivalent to that of the scrap they have given away to one of the many enlisted NGOs, adding a social dimension to the concept, he said. There is also a point system based on how much waste a user gives away based on which they are rewarded regularly.
Wealth from waste
The process:
* A request can be made for collection of scrap through the website, Facebook or WhatsApp
* An appropriate time selected by the customer is confirmed via SMS
* Pick-up boys are sent to collect the requested scrap
* Collected waste is then segregated under categories of recycle, reuse and resell
Advantages:
* Waste meant for recycling can be collected at the time convenient to the user
* All the waste is put through recycling or is reused
* Money generated by selling the waste can be donated to an NGO
* Local kabadiwalas are trained as pick-up boys
* Attempt at organizing the waste collection and recycling industry
Why recycling?
* Recycling of each tonne of paper saves 17 trees and 7,000 gallons water
* One tonne of glass made from 50% recycled materials saves 250 lbs mining waste
* Recycled paper uses 55% less water
* Recycled paper reduces water pollution 35%, air pollution 74%, and eliminates many toxic pollutants
* About 0.1 million tonnes of municipal solid waste is generated in India every day or 36.5 million tonnes annually
* The urban local bodies spend approximately Rs 500 to Rs 1500 per tonne on solid waste for collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of this waste
* Out of the total municipal waste collected, on an average 94% is dumped on land and 5% is composted
Between 2000 and 2025 the waste composition of Indian garbage will undergo the following changes:
* Organic waste will go up from 40% to 60%
* Plastic will rise from 4% to 6%
* Metal will escalate from 1% to 4%
* Glass will increase from 2% to 3%
* Paper will climb from 5% to 15%
* Others (ash, sand, grit) will decrease from 47% to 12%