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Team TT
When was the last time you felt
good for generating waste? There are 3500 families in the twin cities of
Hyderabad and Secunderabad who feel really good every time they sell
their kabaadi. And that is thanks to an innovative start-up
in town that has made a virtue out of selling or rather buying scrap.
For every kilo of waste that online kabaadi collection
service, Crapbin gathers from
customers, a part of the proceeds goes towards sponsoring the education of
needy children in the twin-cities. Crapbin allows you to book the service
online for dry and recyclable waste like books, newspapers, paper, cardboard,
glass bottles, plastic, steel, iron, aluminium, copper, tin, brass and
electronic items. This waste is segregated and supplied to waste recycling
companies for onward processing.
The nearly two-year-old
social venture, founded by brothers Nisar Ahmed, Muquayyar Ahmed and Zuber
Quresh, offers doorstep waste-collection services to households. “Right now, we
are focusing only on dry waste primarily plastic, electronic waste and paper,”
says Zubair.
Like most such ventures
personal experience and necessity is the root cause for why Crapbin was born
from the need to dispose building materials and some electronic waste after the
renovation of their own house a few years back. With few neighbourhood kabaadiwalas willing
to take it, the idea for the start-up struck Zuber.
A thorough research on the
industry followed to find out where the waste came from and where it went in
the city. To their dismay, or perhaps luck, the brothers found that waste
disposal services in the city were woefully wanting and thus the idea for
Crapbin was born.
Comprising all of 25 people,
including four managers, the crapbin team, gathers a little over 50 tonnes per
month from various areas in the city where people aware of its services place
pick-up orders on its website.
To date, Crapbin would have
recycled over 900 tonnes of dry waste, including a lot of paper, and putting it
back into circulation in some form or the other, equivalent to having saved over
50,000 trees and saving nearly a million litres of water.
Crapbin allows you to book the
service online for dry and recyclable waste like books, newspapers, paper,
cardboard, glass bottles, plastic, steel, iron, aluminium, copper, tin, brass
and electronic items. This waste is segregated and supplied to waste recycling
companies for onward processing. Polythene is not yet part of the list as
recycling it is complicated.
And no, Crapbin is not like the
average aggregator start-up like food delivery services that bring together
individual service providers and offers discounts. Every person who comes to
pick up the kabaadi or raddi is an employee and trained by
the brothers themselves. “We cannot afford to use the services of the
regular kabaadiwala as they have to go into the houses of
customers and they need to be trustworthy and trained, says Zuber.
Crapbin has set up three
segregating yards in the city and is looking to add one more in Secunderabad
soon.
While, some may look at
it raddi collection as a commercial proposition, for us it
is predominantly a social endeavour with an environmental and a social service
objective, he adds. Though at the scale it could also make some money.
For now, however, Crapbin is
primarily funded by the eldest of the brothers who returned from a stint in the
Gulf and has some resources to contribute, informs Zuber. But expanding further
would require additional funds and they are on the lookout for social venture
funds, he adds.
And if everything works out
well, in a couple of years the brothers hope to set up their own recycling
plant as their collection service expands.
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