COVER STORY
The outskirts of India’s Capital welcomes you with a massive mountain of Garbage- Bhalaswa Sanitary Landfill, the poster child of India’s improper waste disposal.
North Delhi has been making a significant contribution to the largest landfill of the National Capital’s growing height for years, thus making it operate beyond capacity.
While the government is working on its initiative ‘Garbage-Free Delhi’, it is, unfortunately, accumulating its waste to the landfill, ultimately sacrificing the health, soil and air of the capital and its people.
The story is not new, India’s existing systems for the collection, transportation and disposal of solid waste have failed heavily.
The conventional mindset of keeping the surroundings clean while discarding and destroying other places has been deep-rooted in us.
The situation seems alarming in the urban areas, where the large population is producing larger quantities of solid waste which is becoming difficult to be managed effectively.
India is also one of the world’s largest e-waste producers, which discards approx. 18.5 lakh tons of hazardous waste every year. Mixed with domestic waste, the e-waste finds its way to the landfills or incinerators, which in turn process toxins into the environment.
While India is struggling with its waste, it, on the other hand, is providing large sustainable opportunities for the waste management market.
NOVONOUS, the market research company reports that India’s waste management market will be worth US$ 13.62 billion by 2025.
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As India is searching for sustainable solutions to achieve a landfill-free and garbage-free future, by mapping hundreds of opportunities, the question is, do we have the entrepreneurs to turn these opportunities into sustainable solutions?
The quest for my answer led to an interaction with one such young leader who is helping citizens and organizations across India to manage their waste.
The concept of waste management processing struck Chandan Hait during his college days, encouraging him to create a solution that could change the answer to India’s mammoth intractable problem- waste management.
Bringing his idea to life, he incorporated Shuddh Sustainable Solutions Pvt. Ltd. in 2018.
Today, Shuddh is providing integrated waste management solutions & services to India’s leading corporate(s), Government and the Indian Army, as well as creating grounds for managing solid waste that otherwise goes to India’s landfills or burning.
Team Shuddh’s efforts have been recognized well and people, earlier reluctant, are now connecting well with the startup’s vision.
Inspired, we interviewed Shuddh Sustainable Solutions’ CEO, Chandan Hait who is contributing to the sustainable development of India, for a better, clearer future.
Edited Excerpts
What is Shuddh Sustainable Solutions?
We are a solid waste management startup that aims to recycle and manage waste by enabling the creation of waste segregation infrastructure and solutions for our associates.
We are engaged in the scientific disposal of waste by covering all the levels of waste management- from collection to segregation to recycling and Disposing, MLP disposal etc.
We are a young group of engineers & entrepreneurs dedicated to creating a Swachh & Shuddh tomorrow with a strong belief in sustainable development.
We are proud to have built the country’s most effective and first of its kind waste composting machine available in the market, Shuddh Waste Processor (SWP) and also the first of its kind of multi-level waste management model (ISWM)
In two years of operations, our approach and team have been applauded well and hence, I think we are walking on the right path; taking India towards Zero waste or minimal waste to landfills.
We are striving hard to achieve full value retrieval from waste in a manner which no one has practised ever.
We have already applied technology, safety norms, as well as trained and has skilled our workforce.
With Shuddh, we are developing an ecosystem that actively involves significant contributions of all stakeholders, thus channelizing towards a smooth flowing system. By leveraging technology in our operations, we monitor each step of the Waste Management Process (WMP) – from the initial step of collection till its final processing & disposal. We have also set up a central governance system for continuous improvement of the process.
What are your present associates?
Currently, our machines and solutions are being utilized by the Indian Army, Municipal Corporations & Councils, Hindalco Ltd., RSPL, Aditya Birla Group, Panasonic, Zero Waste Inc, Green World Compost, And others.
Detail us the offerings of Shuddh
SWP – Shuddh Waste Processor
- SWP is a fully automatic and highly compact customized Design. A Composting machine, it processes all kind of food, vegetable, horticulture and temple waste into Compost. The machine has a digester tank, equipped with temp & humidity sensors for maintaining an optimum environment inside the tank.
- The process is completely organic as the machine uses and 100% organic bio culture for the process and 0% chemicals.
- The following types of SWP has been introduced by Shuddh:
Shuddh Horticulture Waste Processor (SWPᴴ)
It is an automatic and highly compact customized design composting machine which processes
all kind of horticulture waste into fuel sticks or organic manure.
Shuddh Food Waste Processor (SWPᶠ)
The machine is technically designed for processing all kind of food waste into high-quality organic compost.
It uses special micro-organism to breakdown and decomposes all kind of food waste into compost within 24 hours.
Shuddh Temple Waste Processor (SWPᵀ)
The machine is technically designed for processing all kind of temple waste into high-quality hawan samagri.
It is an automatic and highly compact customised design. Temple Waste Composting Machine, Composting Machine
Shuddh Mixed Waste Processor (SWPᴹ)
The machine is technically designed for processing all kind of organic waste into high-quality organic compost by controlled special micro-organism decomposition
ISWM- Integrated Shuddh Waste Management (ISWM)
ISWM is a First of its kind, decentralized method to solve the huge problem of solid waste
comprehensively.
ISWM is designed in a very simple manner as it’s a very easy and useful way of
tackling waste by the principle of 5R’s: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle & Recover. It consists of:
• Collection
• Segregation
• Shredding
• Composting Units
• Organic Compost
• Plastic waste management
• Transportation
• Recyclers
• O&M
• Waste warriors with personal protective Equipment & proper I cards.
• Sterilization and processing of hazardous biomedical waste
• Consultancy Services in waste management
What’s your outlook on the Waste Management Industry in India?
The industry is booming to its fullest in developing countries like India.
As the urbanization process is speeding up, India is in dire needs to have sustainable solutions to accelerate and formalize its waste management procedure.
What is the biggest challenge a wastemanagement venture faces in India?
It’s the mindset. One’s waste is his/her responsibility and it just can’t be thrown away, as it seems to be way easier than adopting a sustainable waste management solution.
The conventional ways will only lead up to another landfill, another burning process, another dumping into water.
We need to change the traditional approach; from individual to company, everyone should understand that waste management is not only a profit-making opportunity but also a responsibility towards a sustainable future.
What have been the proud moments for Shuddh?
We have helped one city to score well in the Swachh Survekshan ranking and are currently working with leading corporate(s) like Hindalco, Panasonic & Aditya Birla Group for managing their waste.
We are also helping a few other institutions and organizations to become zero waste.
Religious institutions like Bangla Sahib Gurudwara, Delhi have started managing their waste with us.
To date, we have processed more than 22000 tons of waste and we have disposed of ~900 tons of plastic waste by recycling or disposal.
Shuddh has also produced tons of organic compost using waste.
What’s next for Shuddh?
Since our beginning, we have always focused our approach on making the world a better place for future generations and also to make waste management a self-sustainable segment by the use of better technology, techniques, new inventions, and also sharp awareness.
In two years, we have observed a maturing journey, speaking in the volume of revenue and growth.
At present, we have established our footprints across 10 states of the country. We are working on expanding our wings to PAN India by 2022.
Our journey towards the future is fueled by the vision of making at least 10 cities a zero-waste city by 2025 by using our decentralized waste management systems.
The company is fully geared up for all the upcoming projects in terms of technology, manpower, efficiency and mechanism of working.
Our company is also looking forward to exploring some funding from external sources to boost up the growth.
Over the centuries, we have thought that the easiest way to dispose of our waste is by shipping it out-to landfills, dumping in another locality or even burning it. But the truth is, we are creating a toxic future for generations to come.
It’s the need of the hour that we should understand that proper waste management is not a process; it is a routine that should be practised at every level- from individual to organizations to a whole country.
“Let’s gift a beautiful organic country to our future generations,
Not views with mountains of garbage and streams of waste.Be Shuddh, Be Organic”
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