How Binbag is managing e-waste effectively in India

 

 

Waste management initiatives in India are seriously challenged by E-waste. Discarded computer monitors, motherboards, compact discs, headphones, television sets, mobile phones and chargers, air conditioners, and refrigerators are known as electronic waste or e-waste. When the hazardous components of E-waste require environment-friendly disposal mechanisms, the valuable and essential metal constituents need proper infrastructural provisions and management processes to save economically vital materials.

According to a report of The Global E-Waste Monitor 2020, the world dumped a record 53.6 million tons of e-waste last year. In that, only 17.4% was recycled. China was the biggest contributor with its 10.1 million tons of e-waste, and the United States was second with 6.9 million tons, and India, with its 3.2 million tons, was third. Together these three countries accumulated nearly 38% of the world’s e-waste last year.

The report suggests that to build a more circular economy, where waste is reduced, resources are conserved, and are fed back into the supply chain for newer products, we need to lower the number of electronics entering the waste stream and improve end-of-life handling.

In India, E-waste has become an important waste stream because of its volume and toxicity. Its considerable portions of heavy and precious metal components and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are beneficial and hazardous to society at the same time. This duality emphasizes the need for a careful E-waste management system from both economic and environmental perspectives. According to reports, almost 95% of the e-waste in India ends up in the informal sector. It is hazardous to the health of informal workers who have to handle the waste without any safety guidelines.

To add to that, since most of these workers are unskilled, recycling waste is inefficient. This ends up polluting the surroundings. Several startups and companies have come forward to help India’s informal sector by collecting, processing, and recycling electronic waste seamlessly. Bangalore-based Achitra Borgohain was one of them who started the initiative of Binbag in 2014 to fix this gap and ensure the faster adoption of a circular economy for end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment. His startup started working with private companies, healthcare units, NGOs, and government offices to recycle the e-waste generated from these places.

 

Achitra Borgohain hailed from a middle-class family from the Northeast. He moved to Bengaluru in 2006 after working for some leading companies in Gujarat. He worked with IL&FS for almost 6 years before finding himself in a mid-career crisis. He wanted to do something different, quit his job in 2013 to invest more time in following his dream.

The starting of Binbag was not smooth, the biggest challenge they faced in their initial years was growth and identifying customers who would want to avail their services. Due to a lack of awareness and consciousness regarding the disposal of e-waste, scouting for new clients was challenging for this newborn company.

Within 1 and half years after the inception of the startup, Binbag ran out of its funds. The company lost all its employees and was struggling to meet the cost to pick up e-waste, segregate and send it to recyclers. At that time, Binbag could hardly make any profit; it could barely cover their costs of recycling. The startup made a U-turn after Achitra met Krishnan Chandra Bhushan, who invested in the company and took the role of co-founder & managed sales at Binbag. Bhushan had a software business in Pune, which he had exited and shifted to Bengaluru before joining Binbag.

Binbag shifted its focus to corporates after Bhushan’s entry. The strategy is proved to be a game-changer in their case, as the e-waste generated by corporates is large in quantity and high in quality. Many companies look for data destruction or degaussing. Binbag started making a profit in that encompassing that area too.

Achitra said in one of his interviews “For households and smaller clients, we have neighborhood e-waste collection centers from where they pick up later. There are instances where people come and dump their e-waste at our office.” With time, Binbag’s work has been recognized by different platforms. Binbag won the Urban Sanitation Award in 2017 given by Urban Sanitation Magazine in association with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

Binbag is also associated with a big hospital chain having six hospitals across the country. While large corporates form 30 percent of Binbag’s clients, SMEs make up for 50 percent, and households 20 percent.

The startup has two facilities for recycling this e-waste. One of their facilities is located in Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh with a capacity to recycle 300 tonnes of e-waste per annum. Their second facility is in Assam with CSR support from ONGC. Located in Guwahati. The capacity of this facility is 120 tons per annum.

 

Anubhav Dubey’s Chai Sutta Bar presents a taste of Kulhad in its 165 Outlets

 

Bhopal’s Anubhav Dubey founded Chai Sutta Bar with his two friends Anand Nayak and Rahul in 2016 with an investment of only Rs. 3 lakhs. Anubhav was preparing for IAS at that time in Delhi but quit the UPSC dream after getting a call from his friend Anand whose garment business was not going well. They thought of starting a real estate business first but after much brainstorming, Anubhav and Anand decided to set up a tea shop and chose a corner place at Bhanwar Kuwa Street bang opposite a girls’ hostel in Indore.

 The rent of the place was Rs. 18,000 per month. It had a huge tree and was perfect for the kind of look they had visualized for their business. They did not employ any staff at that time and saved on labor charges by doing most of the work themselves. They have painted the place, rented second-hand furniture, and made a basic signboard all by themselves. They could not afford a digital signboard for their business at that time. The first employee Manoj was appointed with an assurance of salary only if the business picks up.

 

The saga of their success started with their first marketing strategy of distributing free tea to everyone on their inauguration day. They had taken help of various marketing gimmicks like going around town talking about how this new chai point named ‘chai sutta bar’ had got a really good variety. They also called their school and college friends in Indore to come and pay them a visit. Gradually, the place started buzzing with a young crowd, as the girls from nearby hostels found it a cool place to hang around.

 

Their next strategy was shifting from paper cups to kulhad (earthen pots) with a tagline “priceless chuski from desh ki mitti (priceless sip that delivers a taste of your country)”. They serve seven kinds of tea, including chocolate flavor which was much loved by the youngsters. Apart from the traditional tea, they serve ginger, rose, cardamom, betel leaf, saffron, basil, and spice tea. The price ranges between Rs 10 and Rs 200 for tea as well as other items available, such as Maggi, Sandwiches, and Pizzas.

 

 The wheel of success took a fast pace and three months they started their second franchisee outlet. Today, CSB has 165 outlets all over India in 70+ cities with around 18 lakh customers across the country, and 3 outlets in Oman, Nepal, and Dubai respectively. Before giving the franchise, they provide 15 days of training to the outlet openers. Anyone can get the franchise with an investment of 1 to 3 lacks but 12 to 15 lakh rupees are required to set up the entire shop.  The turnover of the company grew from 3 lakhs to 100 crores. This success is not only beneficial in employing 100 people but by serving a minimum of 3 lakh Kulhad's a day, it also created work opportunities for 250 potter families who make kulhads or earthen cups for their outlets. The vision of Chai Sutta Bar is to make it an international brand that describes the goodness of Indian tradition. CSB is looking forward to expanding its franchise all over India by opening at least 200+ outlets to fulfill the market demand for hygienic tea.

On the occasion of International Tea Day, CSB announced the launch of its #TEAforPositiviTEA Campaign. The brand wants to spread positivity during the gloomy time of this pandemic. The campaign will be executed in three phases where CSB will roll out the initiative on its Digital platforms with the Directors themselves spreading the ray of hope and idea of positivity. The brand is famous for hiring workforce who are neglected in society. Through this campaign, the brand will not only aim to extend a helping hand to the orphans, differently able and people from below the poverty line section of the society, but will also generate employment opportunities for them.

 

Ghar ki lxme - An innovative initiative for financial inclusion of women

 

With over half of the world’s population being women, gender-smart investing appears more sensible than gender-neutral investing. If we want to reduce the gender gap in financial inclusion, it would require applying a gender lens to domestic and international policy actions. The barriers that inhibit women to access financial services are multi-dimensional. The approach towards financial inclusion must be coherent with measures applied to redress the structural impediments to the socio-economic empowerment of women.

Although the gender gap in accessing accounts has reduced in India, women had less access to financial services than men.  In 2017, 65% of women had a financial account compared to 72% of men. In India, 77% of women have access to formal financial institutions but 42% of them have not done any transactions in their bank account in a year. 23% of women in India have no access to formal financial accounts.

Financial inclusion is essential for Indian women to help them access loans, credit, and make transactions. They need to save money and build assets in a safe place, which can in turn take them out of poverty. Savings help Indian women to start and run their small businesses. Studies proved that even the women below the poverty line are willing to save and invest if save if given appealing interest rates, a conveniently located facility, and flexible accounts.

To bridge this gap between financial institutions and women, Mumbai-based entrepreneur and Managing Director and Promoter at Anand Rathi Share & Stock Brokers Ltd, Priti Rathi Gupta founded LXME in 2017, India’s first financial planning app that caters specifically to women to help them invest independently. Believing that women are inherently good investors but have been left out of the investment conversation for far too long, Priti wants to end women's reliance on male members of their family to invest their money. This expert-backed hassle-free financial platform is available both as an app and on the web.

Priti said in one of her interviews “Financial independence is an essential life skill every woman should be well equipped with to be truly independent. My purpose is to make investing and financial planning inclusive for women, which will impact them at a personal level and the flow of investments at a macro level. (The community) leads to a strong call to action for women to start their financial-planning journey; the depth of a peer-to-peer conversation translates into learning, as well as mentoring opportunities.”

In India, financially excluded women are categorized into six types: women who are not involved in a paid economic activity, women who are dormant account holders, women whose accounts are used by someone else in their family, women who are basic and irregular users, women who are basic but regular users and financially independent advanced women.

Women are scared to take charge of their finances due to the absence of education, awareness, inability to cope with financial risk, and the Indian mentality of finance being the area where only male members of the family take the decision.

Fintech startup LXME offers two ways to solve the financial problem of Indian women. It provides them an appropriate platform to educate themselves about various financial institutions, tools, and products, such as mutual funds, stocks, bonds, and options through their blog posts, course, and learning modules that can enlighten them about intricate nuances of finance. To add to that, LXME also creates and facilitates a community of women to engage in conversations that make them confident about gaining more control of their finances and learn from each other as they progress on their financial journeys

This financial platform offers interactive online courses on money management through its think module to encourage women to save and invest smartly. Their Financial Fitness Bootcamp teaches users the basics of financial planning that range from investing across life stages, debt management, to the importance of insurance.

The startup also offers literature on financial topics, goal-based investment calculators, and the option for women on the platform to invest in five mutual funds, based on their goals and timelines for the investments, via the LXME app or website.