An army to keep beautiful Himalayas clean

Pahadi Robinhood, a backpackers' hostel cum business incubator has taken up an initiative of waste segregation in the mountains seriously

Ruehie Karri

When we think of Kullu and Manali, the first thing that strikes us is a good snowy vacation. Instead, what is making headlines these days is the alarming rise of waste accumulation in these districts. According to recent reports by the Manali municipal council, Manali generates around 30 to 40 tonnes of waste every day and nearly 2000 tonnes during the peak tourist months of May and June.

Kullu MC is struggling to dispose of and recycle its garbage as they don't have the necessary space for landfills. The panchayats arrived at a solution to transport the waste and let it be treated in the new garbage power plant in Manali.

This is where Pahadi Robinhood comes in, which was co-founded by Mihil Bhansali, Joshua Willig and Sant Kumar Sharma. It is a backpackers' hostel, also doubling as a business incubator located in the town of Naggar in Kullu district. To kickstart the incubator, they themselves started the business of waste collection, having observed the non eco-friendly ways being used to dispose of the non-biodegradable trash. Talking to environment & people, Mihil Bhansali spoke about how everything came into being. Read on to the conversation to understand how.

How did you embark on the journey of Pahadi Robinhood? The main aim behind starting this company was to empower the rural communities of developing markets, thereby encouraging upcoming entrepreneurs to incubate their ideas with our company. Us being experienced marketing consultants can work out the nitty-gritty of the fledgling business and help it grow in a major way. I met Joshua in Vietnam during a vacation and got talking. We realised that we share a lot of the same values and had a strong urge to help increase the markets of rural communities be it anywhere in Vietnam, Cambodia or India. We decided upon India as I speak the local language and India has a huge per centage of budding entrepreneurs with one-ofa-kind ideas. Our search for a place led to meeting our third partner, Sant Kumar Sharma, in Naggar, Himachal Pradesh.

Why did you decide to take up waste collection as your first venture? During the construction of our hostel, we noticed that hotels and other hospitality chains disposed of their garbage by simply burning it in the streets. Even tourists followed this unhealthy practice or simply dumped waste in the river. This was a revelation to us. We wanted to find a feasible solution for disposal/recycling of waste with lesser to zero side effects. After conducting some research, we came to know that the construction of a new garbage power plant was underway near the town of Manali, in Rangri district. It was going to become operational very soon and that got us thinking. This waste-to-energy plant works with segregated waste, as much as 100 tonnes every day to generate 1.5MW of electricity. We approached the panchayat of

Naggar and struck a contract to charge every household a nominal fee and hotels, a slightly higher fee to segregate their waste at the source itself before handing it over to the municipal council. Initially not everyone was on board with this idea but when put across the fact that this would help reduce the accumulation of waste to a large extent and promote tourism as well, people quickly came around.

What kind of waste do you collect? Plastic waste is the major contender. Next is the food related waste. Usually 60-70 per cent of the waste generated in this town is food related. This is sent to the plant for disposal. We also recycle paper and cardboard waste as there is a recycling chain nearby. Even glass bottles can be sold to the recycling chain.

What was the impact of your initiative so far?

Our business has been active since July, 2019 and we have collected over 130 tonnes of segregated waste to be sent to the plant for treatment. One jeep can carry 1-2 tonnes of waste every 2-3 days. The response has been overwhelming. We have people from all over town calling us to collect their waste and some panchayats have expressed interest to adopt this idea. I must say the town looks cleaner, although there's still a long way to go and we are ready for it.

Are you thinking of other initiatives to help keep the villages clean? We have plans to monetise the trash collection business further. Also, we have floated the idea of street cleaning drives to our panchayat. We are currently working on an education program with schools, which essentially asks them to pick up their trash and dump it in the dustbins provided by us at several locations instead of on the streets thus, enabling us to dispose of correctly.

Do you have any plans of processing waste in-house in the future? Yes, we are looking at urban technologies that we can employ. We are doing a feasibility report on a bio-gas plant that can take care of the food waste and produce electricity. Another thing that we are looking at is a solution for dealing with single use plastic and how it can be used as fodder for road maintenance. What message would you like to convey to the public at this point? The three of us started a business incubator with the sole aim of promoting the markets of rural communities in India. We believe that it is no longer a requirement to be situated in the cities to start a business. Imagine working full time in the Himalayan Mountains that we are in the process of cleaning up or having team meetings in a pine forest! The dream is to keep these very scenic towns as clean as possible while simultaneously improving their economy.