Swachha Bharat on course with growing Waste Management Startups

I am not talking politics or public policy here. But somehow things are looking very promising for all government plans, be it startup India, Digital India or the Swachha Bharat Abhiyan. And in tandem, they seem to be rocking and rolling. According to leading analysts, waste management startup industry will grow to over $1billion by 2020.

With the backing of big angel investors, half a dozen startups in space have raised funds in the past six months that includes Saahas Waste Management, backed by IAN, Angel backed EnCashea, Karma Recycling, backed by Infuse Ventures, and MobiTrash, which is being incubated by Excel Industries.

"An average company produces up to 30 tonnes of waste every month, 60% of which is low grade and has to have a service fee that covers the process of waste conversion to composting," says Wilma Rodrigues, founder of

"An average company produces up to 30 tonnes of waste every month, 60% of which is low grade and has to have a service fee that covers the process of waste conversion to composting," says Wilma Rodrigues, founder of Saahas Waste Management. Saahas focuses on providing an end-to-end service, resulting in a zero-waste solution.

Besides collection and recycling of packaging waste and ewaste,the startup follows a detailed procedure for organic waste management. Their clients range from corporate companies and tech parks to individual households. Rodrigues tells, "The fees are based on the quantum of waste generated. An individual employee in a tech mark produces about 250 gms of waste per day and Rs400 to Rs500 is charged per employee every year. Households, on the other hand, typically generate 1-2kg of waste per day for a family of four."

Startups like MobiTrash have a mobile van waste treatment service which treats segregated organic waste from households and converts it into compost for urban rural areas in Pune. Just a month old, the startup treats up to 800 kg of waste a day. The service is available at Rs199 per month for a household and their organic waste is segregated from the dry and mixed waste. A MobiTrash van comes to pick up the waste. A machine that is loaded onto the van treats the waste within 20 minutes and carries it away for composting.

"The government gives a subsidy of Rs1.5 per kg on every kg of compost sold. The raw compost produced after taking it to a centralised facility at the end is often used by semi-urban farms or the Pune Municipal Corporation for its gardening, and for the clients themselves who use it for landscaping," saysSaurabh Shah, team member at MobiTrash.

EnCashea,founded by three former IIT students, has a mobile app to provide doorstep pick-up service for scrap ranging from newspaper, books and magazines to plastic, metal and ewaste.