Kanpur Startup Helps Villages Segregate & Recycle 900 KG Waste

In 2015, Nitin Srivastava was working in waste water administration in a company. Having finished a Grasp’s in environmental engineering, he was eager on growing options to urgent issues utilizing know-how. He additionally wished to department out on his personal, and earlier than doing so, he began preliminary analysis. 

To search out out the problems confronted by individuals on floor, he visited villages close to his hometown of Kanpur, alongside different areas in Uttar Pradesh. 

As he travelled throughout these villages, he realised that strong waste administration was an enormous downside.

“I visited villages, took some surveys and interacted with individuals. I discovered that there was no waste segregation occurring. The second concern was that there have been no individuals to select up the waste. Even in areas with safai karmacharis (sanitation employees), they have been dumping the waste all collectively in landfills,” Nitin Srivastava tells The Higher India.  

After these surveys, Nitin zeroed in on two areas that he discovered missing — strong waste administration and industrial carbon seize. 

“Even in city areas, whereas strong waste administration options exist, most are simply on paper. I began researching extra on viable options and located that if segregation is finished at supply, the chain may be run effectively. It’s very troublesome in any other case to segregate waste when it’s given in a blended method,” provides the 36-year-old. 

Nitin based and registered his firm known as Greengine Environmental Applied sciences Non-public Restricted in 2015. But it surely was solely two years later, when he was armed with information and an thought, that he stop his job and began growing an incentive-based digital waste administration ecosystem, which offers end-to-end options. Proper from incentivising individuals to segregate waste at their houses to the ultimate step of recycling the waste, Greengine’s G-Recyclers, a patented mannequin, does all of it. 

The way it works 

G-Recyclers examined their mannequin in Ishwariganj in 2018. They have been subsequently incubated at IIT-Kanpur. What they do is guarantee waste segregation at supply, subsequent assortment, and correct disposal of the waste. All that is finished by means of their digital ecosystem. 

“A decentralised means of managing waste, I discovered, could possibly be an efficient answer. By participating the general public, utilizing know-how, and minimising use of infrastructure, we will create a sustainable product. We’re principally enablers who carry the locals along with the recyclers and authorities. We now have created a platform to do that in a digital method,” explains the entrepreneur. 

What’s novel about G-Recyclers is the motivation they supply individuals for segregating their waste. 

As soon as the waste is given in a segregated method, individuals obtain a product like tea, cleaning soap, biscuit, sanitary pad, pocket book, pen, spices, and detergent, or a reduction at a neighborhood retailer. This fashion, native companies additionally flourish, in response to Nitin. 

“We now have waste hubs in every gram panchayat. Right here, locals can go and provides their waste. There’s a information particular person and sanitation employee at every hub. The cellular quantity and information of how a lot waste every particular person has disposed will likely be entered right here. Credit are given relying on the amount of waste. As soon as an individual has 50 credit, she or he will likely be given a product price Rs 10 or a reduction voucher,” explains Nitin.

For each six gram panchayats, there’s one widespread materials restoration facility arrange. One motor trolley will switch the waste from every gram panchayat to this facility. From right here, the segregated waste is shipped to native recyclers in several classes. 

The waste is to be demarcated in eight classes, together with natural, digital, medical, paper, glass, rubber, metallic, and plastic (disposable and multi-layered).  They’ve recycled 900 kg of waste to this point. 

“The whole lot is powered by know-how and the waste may be tracked from assortment to last disposal. We offer a digital footprint of every gram of waste. We’re additionally serving to native retailers by selling their merchandise,” provides Nitin. 

Greengine obtained a patent from the federal government for his or her incentive-based waste administration system.

The corporate was incubated at Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre, IIT Kanpur in September 2018. They replicated the mannequin in 20 villages close to Kanpur in October 2019. 

Nonetheless, as a result of COVID, the operations have been hampered.

“COVID induced an enormous problem to us. Simply as we have been seeking to increase, we needed to restart. At the moment, we have now executed MoUs with six gram panchayats close to Lucknow for implementing our mannequin. We now have additionally spoken to the Uttar Pradesh authorities and have finished preliminary discussions to launch in 185 villages. We hope to achieve 20,000 villages within the subsequent three years,” says Nitin.

One other problem confronted was as a result of forms, he provides. “Since we work on a backside prime method, it’s time consuming. We work on educating and empowering individuals in each village. This turns into a bit powerful to duplicate. One other concern is the frequent switch of officers. It causes a variety of delays in implementation,” says Nitin. 

‘Segregation at households is vital’

However the mild on the finish of the tunnel is the behavioural change of villagers, particularly girls and youngsters. 

“Since individuals have extra time in villages, and worth incentives matter to them, they’ve actually began segregating waste. Even one single plastic bag is meticulously segregated by them. Main contributors to the success of our mannequin are girls and youngsters. Their efforts are actually considerable,” says Nitin.

“In contrast to some months in the past, our village has grow to be far more clear. We’re additionally contributing to this and making certain that we give every waste merchandise in a separate style,” says Pooja, a resident of Anora Kala village the place G-Recyclers is operational. 

The opposite huge answer that Nitin is engaged on now could be industrial carbon seize. Having labored on this throughout his MTech in environmental engineering from IIT Kanpur, the entrepreneur is now growing a know-how for a similar. Greengine has partnered with Indian Oil Company (IOC) for this challenge. 

“We’re engaged on capturing industrial carbon dioxide by means of microalgae. This can assist scale back carbon emissions. We are going to then convert it into merchandise like biopolymers and biogas. The IOC helps us and has funded this challenge. We will likely be deploying this by subsequent yr,” says Nitin. 

Edited by Divya Sethu