From dump to data: How this start-up is fixing India's waste management issue - The Economic Times
Published 17 hours ago• 3 minute read
From dump to data: How this start-up is fixing India’s waste management issue
By , ET Special
essentially FMCG companies—in achieving plastic neutrality while complying with plastic waste management or the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulation.
The company’s ClimaOne platform, which was launched last year, is in an inclusive model where all stakeholders of the waste management supply chain—local scrap dealers, aggregators, and waste management companies—are onboarded. This model includes a collection partner app and a web-based dashboard for the brand owner.
“So, when a brand buys plastic credits from us, they’re able to see the entire track and trace of where the material was, who collected it, what the quantity is, what the quality is, and where it has been finally used for recycling itself. Now this data is being used for, of course, their EPR compliance-based reporting, but also they’re using it for their SGD (Sustainable Goals Development) reporting globally. So, ClimaOne essentially brings in transparency and traceability in this informal waste management sector,” he said, adding that initially, it was quite difficult to get the collection partners on board because they’re largely informal in nature and are not used to working on technology platforms.
ReCircle operates its own collection units in Mumbai, where it handles the collection, sorting, and segregation of materials before selling them to recyclers.
Honey products manufacturer Honey Twigs has been working with ReCircle for the past four years. The company uses food-grade plastic as its primary packaging material, as they could not find an affordable and environmentally friendly packaging solution with a shelf life of 18 months. “Till the time we don’t find such an option, we want to make sure we are discarding our product waste responsibly. For this EPR responsibility, we hired ReCircle, which has helped us neutralise our environmental footprint. They helped us in responsibly discarding our return or unsold stock. The only other option is to hand it over to the municipal corporation, who simply throws it on an open dump. So, having such a partner helps us as a sustainability brand,” says Jigar Mehta, Co-founder, Honey Twigs.
ReCircle operates its own collection units in Mumbai, where it handles the collection, sorting, and segregation of materials before selling them to recyclers.
Future ReCircle is now working on PET flakes, derived from small fragments of PET bottles. These flakes can be recycled and used as raw material for manufacturing various products, including furniture and packaging materials. A pilot is being conducted in North India, with operations set to commence this month.
ReCircle is also working on setting up a recycling infrastructure and collaborating with MSME recyclers who face challenges in upgrading their capacities or achieving the desired quality output.
“So, we’re partnering with MSME recyclers where we are going to work with them on a contract basis. This will help them as well as us in scaling up our capacities for recycled content. We have the supply chain in place, and we have the customers in place, and as per the EPR requirement, there's a mandatory requirement for brands to use recycled plastic in their supply chain itself. So that's where we see the demand growing not just in India but globally as well,” says Nainani.
Other than this, ReCircle will be expanding from plastic waste to textile waste, and research is currently going on around it.
