Did you know that you could use Facebook and Whatsapp to sell your household waste online? And also make some money off it?
Find out how a young engineer from Bhopal is doing it and urging others to follow suit.
Anurag Asati is an IT engineer who hails from Bhopal and knew at the onset that he wanted to create some impact in the world with the skills he had.
It all started one day when Anurag was asked to get a kabadiwala home to collect some newspapers.
"I started working on this, but this simple task proved pretty cumbersome. In the process, I found out everything about the waste management cycle and how the process works. at the end of it, I had come to a conclusion this is purely a gap an something needs to be done," says the young entrepreneur.
And this is how he decided to start up Online Kabadiwala -- an online portal that helps people to book a slot and get their waste collected alongside getting paid for it.
There is nothing revolutionary in the idea but the commendable part has been the execution.
Asati found support from Kavindra Raghuwanshi, his professor in college and also the co-founder and mentor with the venture.
His guidance has helped Asati shape the idea and both of them had put in the initial seed capital to set the ball rolling.
They've tried out various things -- advertising on hoardings, distributing pamphlets to spread awareness, ads on Facebook, etc to get the early traction.
It has been more than a year and Asati tells us that 10,000 plus people have given away the waste via their website.
Here's how the process works:
Users submit an online request or send a message (even Whatsapp works)
OnlineKabadiwala will send an employee to collect that waste material as per the decided time slot and pay according to the weight.
The collector goes with an Electronic Weight Machine so that the waste material or house hold junk material can be weighted very fairly and as per the rate listed
After the request gets completed, a feedback call is made.
The waste is segregated and sent for recycling
Anurag Asati has managed to get enough business to sustain a team of eight delivery boys.
"I wanted to create an impact and waste management is a huge problem all over. Belonging to Bhopal, I thought of doing something about it and internet gave the power to implement," he says.
There are a bunch of companies in the space but we're yet to see something spectacular emerge.
Venture backed Attero is one of the most sophisticated waste management firms being built from India and technological advancements like converting waste plastic into fuels are not things you hear often.
Young Asati has been able to set up processes and has done a great job to get this traction in a place like Bhopal where internet is just picking up.
He's pretty ambitious and it'll be nice to see the effort reap fruits.
"It's in my blood to do business and I am very much passionate about it too, but apart from that, I want to do something which would be helpful for the nation.
This is not just a business, this is a service which may play a huge role in the field of go green concept and eco-friendly services," he sums up.
