The impact of globalisation and growing access to information coupled with the rapid growth in the Indian economy has greatly accelerated discretionary expenditure amongst the growing Indian middle class. The manifestation of this is seen in the increased per capita consumption and the amount of waste being generated. India generates about 0.1 million tonne of municipal waste everyday, amounting to 36.5 million tonnes annually.

As we can see, waste is generated in some or the other form by us and we are completely affecting nature by dumping our waste in landfills, in the seas, etc. To address the above problem and to add value to the generated waste, a new sector has emerged tagged ‘waste recycling’.

Recycling is a process by which we add value to the waste generated and hence form products which in their present form would have higher value. Recycling of anything and everything is possible such as recycling of waste paper, fly ash, solid and bio waste.

Recycling opens an entirely new sector and has immense potential. Hence it is emerging as an area that is creating new livelihood options for unskilled and semi-skilled human beings by setting up new recycling-based enterprises in both semi urban and urban areas. There are numerous recycling technology providers who provide solutions for waste materials such as paper waste, fly ash waste from thermal power plants, used tetra pack cartons, cotton rags from industries, etc. The above ‘waste to wealth’ technologies rely on simple production techniques and minimal mechanisation. This innovation enables easy operation of the machinery by women and even by differently abled individuals.

There are different types of waste to wealth technologies available in the market.

Some of the above-mentioned wastes to wealth technologies are sole proprietary technologies such as the paper recycling technology and the Tetra Pack recycling technology while other areas have multiple vendors.

Recycling enterprises could be established in semi urban and rural areas subject to raw material source availability and targeted market outreach including low cost sanitary napkin technology which is ideal for a rural area as the targeted buyers of the prepared product are the BoP (Bottom of Pyramid) people and positioning the enterprise in rural areas would generate livelihood opportunities for people in these areas itself.

These recycling enterprises or waste to wealth enterprises can help generate sustainable livelihood opportunities for people in semi urban and rural areas by providing financial stability and a higher standard of living. q