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our burning
Poverty is a man-made construct, a gross ignorance of justice. Poverty also isn’t just a lack of cash, it is multidimensional: it is a lack of access to healthcare, education, a decent standard of living, equal opportunity and dignity.
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our mode of operation
Simultaneously, we believe that systemic problems in our society need financially sustainable and scalable solutions that focus on long-term, permanent progress.
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~1.5 million waste
pickers in india who live
multidimensionally
poor lives -
81% of waste in india is
untreated (~50 million tons),
and half of all waste generated
is dumped in landfills
So Why Waste Management?
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Waste pickers
Waste employs some of India’s poorest people: waste-pickers. There are about 1.5 – 4 million waste pickers who live multidimensionally poor lives. They are informally employed – no contract, no protective gear, no health insurance, while earning only daily wages based on the type of waste they encounter. Their life expectancy can be as low as 39 years of age (versus 69 for an average Indian) because of the dangerous conditions (fumes, fires, dirt) in which they work, and that to, generally without protective equipment. They are generally of low caste, belong to minority groups, or are migrants. They earn somewhere between Rs 3,000 and Rs 12,000 a month and live in urban areas that have a higher cost of living on average.
It’s also a generational occupation – once you’re a waste picker, there’s a high probability your child will also become a waste-picker.
This is the cycle we must break.
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untapped potential
Simultaneously, there is untapped value in waste. 50%-80% of waste in India is untreated (~50 million tons), and half of all waste generated is dumped in landfills. That’s over 160,000 Boeing 747s. This waste can be recycled / reformed / re-purposed into value.
Estimates say that waste has the potential to be a multi-billion dollar industry in India by 2025. We believe that’s conservative; there’s even more value to be unleashed.
Which Drives Our Vision And Mission
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vision
A thriving world in which poverty doesn’t exist; where every human has access to education, healthcare, decent living standards, equal opportunity and most importantly, dignity while positively contributing to the well-being of our planet.
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mission
To increase the value of waste, and fairly redistribute that value to stakeholders in the supply chain, especially those who are the most exploited: waste-pickers; thus bringing them permanently out of the cycle of poverty, while making our planet better.
Specific Problem We Are Currently Addressing
For starters, we have intentionally chosen those types of plastic waste that are both recycled less and hard-to-recycle. Our next step would be tackle all types of plastic waste in one decentralised resource cradle, inching us towards our utopia.
Our utopia
PLASTIC (MLP) PACKAGING
- Near 0% of B2C plastic packaging is recycled worldwide
- Only 14% of plastic packaging is collected for recycling globally
- 95% of plastic packaging material value is lost annually
- It’s low-value, high-volume, composite waste with up to 5-6 different types of materials, which makes it “impossible” to recycle.
