Entrepreneurs use technology to provide innovative solutions to India’s garbage crisis

WASTE VENTURES

Operations - Ties up with municipalities, and employs waste pickers at the composting units. The compost is sold to wholesalers.

Founders - Parag Gupta

Revenue - NA

Investment - Raised Rs 3 crore Future - Expand to 10 Andhra Pradesh municipalities, in talks to expand in Bhutan and Nepal

Waste Ventures signs multiyear contracts with local municipalities and employs waste pickers at their processing units to segregate waste. The Delhi-based startup, launched in 2011, has 44 projects lined up this fiscal. It has kickstarted two in Andhra Pradesh villages. Gupta, who was associated with the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship has also worked on projects in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Orissa and Bihar.

GREEN NERDS

Operations - Sells waste management machinery

Founders – Nidhish Shetty (MD) and Abhiman Shetty

Revenue - Rs 1 crore

Investment - Rs 15 lakh

Future - Looking to expand sales to Hyderabad and Maharashtra

Green Nerds, founded in December 2011, sells garbage management machines for between Rs 3.25 lakh and Rs 25 lakh. The firm, which calls itself a product company in the waste management space, expects to sell 35 machines by the end of this fiscal. One machine shreds the unsegregated waste, the other crushes them into compact blocks, so that space in a landfill is conserved.

GREEN POWER SYSTEMS

Operations - Developed tech named Bio Urja that converts waste to biogas.

Founders - Mainak Chakraborty, Sreekrishna Sankar

Revenue - Rs 1 crore in one quarter

Investment - Seed fund of Rs 25 lakh

Future- Aims to set up bottling units to sell bottled biogas

Green Power Systems handles one tonne of waste a day, to produce biogas that is equivalent to four cylinders of LPG. The company is funded by i2india Ventures and has clients such as school lunch delivery organisation Akshaya Patra & Infosys. Its systems are installed in 10 processing units across the country. It aims to cross the $1 million mark while keeping the team size below 15.