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"More than 70 percent of household waste in India gets diverted into the landfills without getting segregated or treated. According to the World Bank, India will generate 377,000 tonnes of waste by 2025. As per the experts, considering the current rate at which we are dumping garbage, by 2030, we would need landfills around 90 per cent of the area of Bengaluru to hold it.
Cities across the world are trying to go zero-waste by diverting their trash from landfills and recycling or composting them. In India, a few startups are already taking up waste recycling on a war footing and converting waste into wealth. These enterprises are actively moving waste beyond something to be discarded into something that can be productively used as raw materials to manufacture new products."
Eight recycling "warriors" are featured in this article including 2014 D-Lab Scale-Ups venture Protoprint, which works with wastepickers in India to source recycled plastic to creat 3-D printer filament and increase the income of wastpickers.
"Protoprint: This rather innovative Pune based social enterprise aims to help waste pickers who are socially marginalised and poorly paid, by working in tandem with them. The startup provides them with low-cost technology that enables them to produce 3D printer filament from the waste they collect. The enterprise aims to market this filament worldwide as a Fairtrade alternative to the regular plastic filament. Protoprint, founded by Sidhant Pai, is working with SWaCh and National Chemical Labs in order to improve the quality of the filament."