Ep. 278 - Rethinking waste as a resource with Rahul Nainani

“Waste not, want not.” can be explained as “if you are not wasteful with the resources you have now, then at a later date you will have those resources to use as you want and need. By not wasting, you will not be needy later.”

And today to discuss all about waste ecosystem and the sector at large, we have Rahul Nainani with us on Audiogyan. Rahul has a passion for sustainable policies that create value. With one eye on the bottom line and the other on tangible social impact, Rahul, along with his co-founder Gurashish Singh Sahni founded ReCircle in 2016, as an innovative, multifaceted solution to India’s burgeoning waste management woes. ReCircle has instituted flagship initiatives such as, ClimaOne, Plastic EPR Service, Plastic-Neutral programs and ground-level community collection drives. We’ll talking about this and more.

Questions

1. How do we define waste? What all broad categories of waste do we generate?
2. Can you share some stats about waste generated in India every day? Perhaps about the waste ecosystem and the sector at large?
3. How does the entire setup work? Which all entities are involved in handling waste? From collection at source to finally dumped or put for recycling?
4. How do we do in comparison to other developing countries like us?
5. How critical has been the impact of Swatch Bharat and other initiatives to entrepreneurs like you or the entire ecosystem?
6. Tell us a little bit about ReCircle — how did you come to start it and why? Tell us about your team, initiatives, programs and everything. Right from Safai Saathis to governing bodies, how do you engage with them?
7. What is ClimaOne? Tell us about other flagship initiatives under ReCircle?
8. How has technology changed things for everyone in this ecosystem? How and where technology is applied?
9. Waste management doesn’t sound very sexy. How do you attract talent and run the company?
10. What is the future of Waste? Can we expect waste in Meta-verse? Can we expect India to be as clean as Singapore?

Reference reading

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulnainani
• https://www.mwcbarcelona.com/agenda/speaker/rahul-nainani
• https://twitter.com/rahul_nainani?lang=en
• https://www.instagram.com/rahulnainani18/
• https://recircle.in
• https://www.theentrepreneursofindia.in/post/rahul-nainani-the-entrepreneurs-of-india-youngpreneur-magazine-august-2022
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/recircleindia/?originalSubdomain=in
• https://www.eatmy.news/2023/07/rahul-nainani-gurashish-singh-sahni-how.html
• https://medium.com/worthwhile/in-conversation-with-rahul-naini-ceo-and-cofounder-of-recircle-52c31f156f41
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/gurashish123/?originalSubdomain=in
• https://yourstory.com/companies/recircle
• https://www.thequint.com/explainers/explained-indias-cleanest-city-indore-is-earning-huge-bucks-from-its-garbage
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cleanest_cities_in_India
• https://theprint.in/india/these-are-the-secrets-to-indores-5-year-cleanest-city-streak-and-its-not-rocket-science/772362/
• https://indianexpress.com/article/india/indore-cleanest-city-swachh-rankings-7632466/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambikapur,_Chhattisgarh
• https://india.mongabay.com/2023/05/ambikapurs-women-led-waste-management-system-also-generates-revenue-for-the-city/#:~:text=Ambikapur bagged a bigger recognition,best self-sustained small city.