The world is beautiful with all the gifts humanity has received from its creator. The omnipotent is kind and just and has enriched our surroundings with an ecosystem that encouraged us to thrive and co-exist together. Our society has evolved greatly when it has come to technology, the standard of living, increasing lifespan, and environmental uplift. Science has to be appreciated for all the innovations it has provided that have taken the time toward a progressive curve. But the downside to advancement and innovation has taken a great toll on aspects like biodiversity and the overall health of the environment. On the one side, the advent of time brought with it an upward trajectory toward environmental protection. But on the other side, issues like environmental pollution have raised questions about the environment protection act. Are we as humans of the earth not doing enough to protect the environment and its components?
Business Outreach Magazine will shed some insight into the space of waste management in India and how phool.co is helping the communities of India and its temples to act on the pressing issue of environmental ethics. Waste management includes a process where actions are taken to manage wastes from the point of their origin to the final destination for disposal. The entire method includes collecting the waste from the origin, transportation of the waste, treating and disposing of the waste materials along with regulating and proper monitoring of the process included in the waste management project with the laws of the waste management system, technological parts, and the economic mechanisms behind it.
Waste management can be divided into three types namely, solid-state, liquid, and gaseous materials. All three types have their specific actions for disposal and proper treatment. In this process, there are several parts of waste that can be biological, radioactive, biomedical, consumer, and many more. It can be considered that the associates involved in a waste management company are subjected to health-related issues. This can pose an individual in the system either directly or indirectly. Actions like consuming food and water, and handling solid waste can bring health issues. Waste management in our country and world is the result of human activity that deteriorates the environmental aesthetics and peaceful habitats.
The primary objective of waste management is to decrease the alarming effects that waste created on a healthy environment by creating waste management jobs that deal with municipal waste coming from houses, industries, and commercial activities. The whole approach for a waste management company depends on an area. It can be different in a developed country and in a developing nation. Projects can also be handled accordingly in rural and urban areas. An effective way of waste management leads to cities that are living-friendly and sustainable. But due to inconsistencies, there are several roadblocks faced during the process. From reports, the data suggests that the proper way to undergo waste management is rather very expensive and requires about 20% to 50% of the budget allotted to municipal divisions.
An efficient waste management service needs integrated systems that are supported by society and are promising for the future of the communities. According to the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), solid waste acquired from society will reach about 3.4 Gt by the year 2050. But the proper rendition of government policies and planning will significantly help in reducing waste in different parts of the world.
Techno-economic mechanisms will play a huge part in tuning down municipal waste bringing facilities that are effective in the disposal of solid waste and producing sustainable recyclable products. Phool.co is a company in this domain of waste management that handles waste flowers from temples and turns them into recycled products. The co-founders Ankit Agarwal and Karan Rastogi were spending time on the bank of Ganga when they noticed the water is too polluted. People were even drinking water from the river and filling in their bottles with water.
The river Ganga is considered sacred to the people of India and seeing the water being polluted is certainly a matter of concern not just for the purpose of religion but also for environmental issues. Pollution is a subject that is getting dangerous each day and the authorities are doing everything to control it. But the pressing part of river Ganga being filled with flower waste made the co-founders come up with the idea of phool. The inception of the company deals with the aim to turn waste from temples into sustainable and usable products. Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world with about 1.1 billion followers and devotees. In the religion, devotees out of love and respect give a lot of things to the deities from fruits and flowers to money. Although the fruits and flowers get utilized, the flowers turn into solid waste that creates a massive challenge to the environment.
Since the gifts to the Gods are taken seriously and considered sacred, most of them end up in the Ganga. The method is called Visarjana, where offerings to the Gods are put into the river. Earlier this process was acceptable, but now due to fertilizers and pesticides being added, it emits a lot of chemicals in the rivers from the flowers. Reports indicate that about 16 percent of the waste found from the river is predominantly flowers that are used in religious ceremonies. The chemicals and pesticides from flowers come as a threat to the aquatic species in the river and endanger their survival.
From just a conversation, water pollution effects can sound not too alarming. But when the data says that about 2 million flowers are gathered as a waste every day out of which a lot comes from the city, Kanpur, matters should be taken priority. Phool. co is a startup from the city of Kanpur that daily recycles about 8.4 tonnes of flower waste from temples in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Various products are being made from the said waste and the co-founders are really proud of the selfless motive they have towards their deed.
Waste Management Hierarchy in India and the global stage includes three ‘R’, which are reduced, reuse, and recycle. The hierarchy is the foundation of every waste management project, where the idea is to take all the benefits possible from the product and bring out the end waste. The following step includes the re-use of the product followed by composting, which is recycled. The end step is the disposal of the waste either in a landfill or incineration of the waste, where there is no recovery of energy. The progressive format of the product is the sequence of waste management.
The socio-economic venture of phool.co has a massive positive impact on society, where jobs are created and the community is encouraged to support the system. In this process, a supply chain and logistics department is created that collects the waste from temples and mosques and initiates the next steps in the process. The parts of the flower are used to make products depending on their type. Like petals are made into products that are used for composting. The product brochure of phool. co is huge and includes organic incense that is certified and charcoal-free, colors that are certified to be skin-friendly, rose smell cones of incense, vermicompost, and leather that are vegan and appreciated by about 2,50,000 happy customers.
Phool. co takes no measures that are not environmentally friendly and ‘Florafoam’, which is eco-friendly, is in the testing stage. It is a substitute for thermocol that is harmful and takes a lot of time to decompose. The patented products by phool. co-created a livelihood for about 1,200 families from the rural sections of India. These lifestyle products in India by phool. co have reduced Ganga being a disposal point for flower waste. Phool. co startup employs individuals from the lower strata of society and supports them in living a purposeful life. Women employees are valued and the phool.co story inspired thousands of people from India and around the world.
Till today, the company has reported recycling about 11,060 metric tonnes of waste from temples and mosques and pledges to continue the holistic path for the welfare of society. Phool co-founder Ankit Agarwal and Karan Rastogi slowly gathered funding as time proved to be on their side and the company scaled. With an initial phool. co-funding of about Rs. 72,000, the journey commenced and later several venture firms extended their support towards the brand. About $ 2 million in seed funding was raised by phool. co company from Indian Angel Network, Social Alpha, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, and Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation from San Francisco.
Indian Angel Network provided about Rs. 375 crore fund and the investment capital group supports sectors like virtual reality, healthcare, software as a service (SaaS), fintech, agritech, and many more. Social Alpha, which is an initiative by Tata Trusts, was with the company at the budding stage and along with DRK Foundations, about Rs. 3.38 crore was raised in funding. Alia Bhatt is one of the true believers in the vision of the company and has invested in the brand.
The company has a monopoly in this market and Kanpur Flowercycling, which owns the phool.co initially had stiff competition from HelpUsGreen, where Karan Rastogi is the founder. The Facebook page for the company phool. co had the previous name of HelpUsGreen. Wikipedia says that HelpUsgreen is the parent group of Kanpur Flowercycling. But Karan Rastogi does have his name mentioned in the phool.co’s website.
In the year 2018, out of 17 young leaders, Ankit Agarwal got selected by the United Nations for the SDG Initiative which is the Sustainable Development Goals. The idea to do something good rarely gets a promising future and phool.co made it a reality by turning flower waste into premium incense cones. Employing women and turning their lives from the backward class to being socially independent inscribes wisdom and charity.
In spite of several resistance from religious foundations in giving away their flowers, phool. co was persistent in helping towards the betterment of the environment. PETA also awarded phool.co for its vegan leather product named ‘Fleather’. Such companies will definitely bring a wave of entrepreneurs and startups that eye the organic scalability of the coming economy. Economies created from such ideologies will amplify the existence mankind is reasoned to live in.
