Is India the next Waste Management Champion?

With a yearly production of 62 million tonnes of solid waste, India represents a high-potential market for new waste management companies. 4.5 million tonnes of hazardous waste including bio-medical waste, 3 million tonnes of plastic waste and 3.2 million tonnes of e-waste are generated in India each year. Not only are those figures alarming, but they are expected to rise in the coming years. Estimations are expected at 436 million tonnes of waste by 2050.

What are India doing about this?

According to Chairman and Managing Director of Eco Recycling Ltd. (Ecoreco). B.K Soni, around 39 million people (so nearly 3% of India's population) are working in manual scavenging, e-waste and other waste management. With the development of automated waste selection system and new recycling methods, the waste management industry has grown significantly. Estimates in India at a potential worth of $13 billion by 2025, with an annual growth rate of 7.17%. A large number of waste management start-ups are currently backed by angel investors to deal with the yearly 20 million tonnes of uncollected waste and 50 million tonnes of untreated waste across India. The industry is still very fragmented and mainly operating with start-ups or SMEs. India wishes to attract big funding from local and international actors to allow for more partnerships and achieve a 'Clean India'.

Perhaps Ireland could learn from India with their attitude towards their waste. Trying to work towards recycling more. Kollect's pay as you go bin collection service allows customers to get more recycling collections per week which can help your waste bill and the environment. For more information on Ireland's recycling stats you can check out the EPA Website.

Sources:Kushagra Dixit. Tale of an untapped $13 billion waste management industry, The Economic Times, 2016Shashwati Shankar, Waste management startup industry to grow to over $1 billion by 2020, The Economic Times, 2016Daniel Hoornweg and Perinaz Bhada-Tata, What a Waste: A Global Review of Solid Waste Management, World Bank, 2012