The recycle man of India who created use out of the useless

Dr. Binish R. Desai

Dr. Binish Desai is an innovator and a Social Entrepreneur working on industrial waste recycling and management. He holds a Masters degree in Environmental Engineering and an Honorary Ph.D in Environmental Science and Technology. He started his journey at a very young age of 11years, by carrying out home based experiments with chewing gum and paper. He currently has 150+ eco-products under the EcoEclectic Technologies banner in India. He is a Padma Shri nominee and has received many Nnational and International awards for his contributions. He is the youngest to be awarded the "Rotary International Alumni Humanitarian of the Year" award for South Asia and Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2018 list of successful Social Entrepreneurs. He is known as The Waste Warrior and Recycle Man of India for his works in recycling more than 700 tonnes of Industrial waste. He believes that the concept of "Waste" does not exist in Nature, the waste was generated by human consumption, and thus it is our duty to sustainably get rid of it. With a vision to eliminate the industrial waste from Entrepreneur, Businessman landfills; he founded Eco Eclectic Technology in 2016, a lab that focuses on providing cost effective eco-friendly technologies and solutions for various industrial wastes and using them for social impact.

Brand name:E.E. Tech Group, Eco Eclectic Technologies, Eco Lights Studio.

Company name: Eco Eclectic Group.

Brand Tagline: “Nothing is useless in this world; what can be a waste to you is someone’s asset”

USP: Convert waste into eco innovations and luxury and empower-

What inspired you to start a Company in Recycling and Waste Management and what was the purposebehind it?

At the age of 10, when I got inspired from my favourite cartoons Captain Planet and Dexter’s Lab. In the same fashion of trying to help Captain Planet, I started thinking of how I can help save the environment. My first innovation was actually when I observed the water vapor that was coming out ofmy mom’s kitchen and that resulted in my first innovation. So I created a machine where all the water vapor from the kitchen could be condensed into water for gardening. So that seemed to be a crazy innovation, because that is when I learned about evaporation and condensation.

The reason I am here today is actually because of my invention at the age of 11 when a chewing gum was stuck on my pants during a classroom and I had to remove it with a piece of paper. So, it had hardened up and I went back home and did the same experiment again. That resulted in invention of the first brick. Back then it was never meant to be a brick; that was during the same time when I learned the word slums in the class and the negativity that surrounded it. So, I decided to create world’s most cost-effective homes and that is how the idea of ing women.

making bricks out of that material came into existence.

Keeping that in mind of creating world’s most cost effective home, I continued experimenting and by the age of 14 years, I had my final recipe that was to be patented. During the same time, I got selected as Rotary Exchange student to the United States. That changed my life forever, because this was the transition period of one year which made me go from pursuing a passion to actually pursuing a career. So in 2010, at the age of 16, after returning back from US, I started my company, the first Company of making the bricks out of paper wastes. I had only Rs.1600 in my pocket. When I told my family that I want to start something like this and they said “Sorry, but we will not support you in this”. Because work-

COVER STORY INTERVIEW ing with waste was a taboo and when I started talking about it, people thought I had gone crazy. And that is how the first day at work looked like, in a parking lot of a paper mill which I had visited and asked for space. They gave me their parking lot space next to a gutter. I started making bricks myself, as I did not have money to hire the labourers. It took me around 11 months to create enough bricks to make the first house. What were the Challenges you faced during the journey?

The biggest hardship that I faced was while trying to put the word out about how waste could be converted in this eco product because as working with waste was a taboo, that to a 16 year old trying to explain everyone that he has created this brick which is even better than the age old red brick that everyone has been using. So what I started doing was when I would go meet anyone I would take 2 bricks, one red regular brick and another one which I had made. I would tell them that throw as hard as you want, hit it as many times as you want, drive a car over it, put in water for as many days as you like and things like that just so that they can compare the two and they themselves would have a look at it and that brought in trust about the product and that is one of the ways I cleared the hurdles of the acceptance aspect of it.

The second major hurdle was trying to safeguard the technology; because when you have something unique, although you have a patent. But I was able to overcome it by keeping all our ingredients a trade secret and not revealing any of our binders or our recipes to anyone outside. So that was our way to overcome the challenges that we had and we cleared that as well. But I think that is not an issue of acceptance of the created the product, now everyone is talking about waste, everyone knows that Dr. Binish Desai is working towards converting wastes into an asset. The brand has been created in terms of trust and something unique that should be looked upon. I believe very strongly that, unless the product is not just, it is not commercially, economically viable, I will not displclose it. That trust has to be built up among the industries, among the people and among the consumers. They are excited and always waiting to see our new products.

What are the opportunities and achievements your brand has received till date?

I think the biggest achievement for my company and the brand is basically in trying to uplift the lives of many in the villages of rural India. I still remember an incident when an old grandma hugged me and started crying, saying that the reason why my granddaughter is getting married is because of your efforts in the construction of our house and the toilet. That is till date, one of the most special moments for me. I consider that as an achievement of the Group; because we are able to not just recycle the manmade waste but impact the lives of the people in need. That igs exactly what my brand has achieved and overall. As you are aware of I’m known as ‘The Recycle Man’ of India that comes along with a responsibility, although it’s an achievement but It always comes with a responsibility of ensuring that no waste gets wasted. So I always use the tagline ‘Waste No Waste’ and to think, that is exactly what signifies this entire concept.

What has been your approach towards product innovation? Research and Development strategies?

We are actually a research driven company; in fact one of the group of companies is purely towards creating eco economical products through research and development, so our strategies are very simple. We follow the triple bottom line concept. We are assessing the products in three stages, environmental impact, social impact and economic viability and not just economic viability. It has to be easily economically available for the consumers as well. So while we are creating something new, we keep a balance of all three in mind. We have around 150+ products from 70+ different types of waste that we are working on and we have created these products. We work on very unique projects as well. We are customizing a project, for example of a salon where we are taking up all their waste and converting that into products that are of useful to them. This creates a circular economy where their waste becomes their treasure!

How important is sustainability to you?

Sustainability is the core ideology of our company, as we believe in triple bottom line where we take sustainability as a balance of environmental impact, social impact and economic impact. Considering all these things, sustainability is the core idea that I personally believe in and as well as my group of companies believe in.

How has your company kept pace with technological up gradation over the years?

So as we celebrate the 10 th year of the formation of the company, we are very glad that we have been coping up with the technologies. In fact, we are very excited to be able to develop new products using the current technologies. Right now we are working on three different things on houses made out of materials, that would be a very unique project and we are very excited about it. The new types of pollutants that are coming up every day, for example PPE pollution, it has taken the world with a storm during the pandemic! We are very happy to announce that we are now recycling PPE kits as well into brick 2.0. It’s an updated version of the previous brick that I had invented when I was 11 years old, that is what was the result of thousands of houses and

toilets and today we have launched brick 2.0 which basically has 52% of PPE waste. So we are always getting updated with the new technologies, and faced with new challenges that the world keeps giving. In terms of the waste management, we are very happy of being able to manage it well. In fact our 2025 goal is to make India waste free by having solutions to all the waste that is generated from different industries.

What are the current issues being faced by textile and apparel industry? Do you have any suggestions for improvement?

I think a lot of fashion industries and textile industries need to move towards from the linear cycle to circular economy, not just recycling economy but actually circular economy. I think that is where the challenges are. In fact, overall textile and apparel industries is one of the most polluting industries that we know of, and reducing the waste will help them become much more eco friendly in terms of the waste being generated. But I envision that one day there is no waste generated at all. During manufacturing, post-production waste, or may be post-consumer waste, all need to be taken care of in the right way. Before that finding eco friendly alternatives to the materials that are being manufactured is also a key, that I feel needs to be kept in mind.

What is your take on the future scenario of recycling, up cycling, sustainability and waste management segment in the domestic as well as global market?

Domestically, I see India as a leading solution provider of zero waste technologies that we are making locally and selling globally. India has alway had its rich culture and the ideology of recycling. We at times name it as jugaad but that is also a type of upcycling and recycling. Innovations and startups are coming up in an amazing way to solve the environmental crises; specially related towards waste. Understanding the right meaning of recycling and waste management will be the key towards finding solutions. Not just domestically but also globally after this pandemic I think, it will be more important than ever to discuss waste being an asset and start taking waste seriously.

Where do you see your company in next 5 and 10 years?

We see my group of companies expanding all around the world globally, finding solutions to various types of wastes generated in all these countries, not just domestic but also industrial waste. The technology we have, is being used to put in the right places according to the Sustainable Development Goals. We are globally creating an impact; every year we are recycling more than 20,000 metric tons of wastes. Branding Strategies in Indian and International Market

Eco eclectic technology believes in converting wastes into eco economical and social innovations. The mere purpose is making waste an asset in a way that it can be useful to the one in need. I think by now the name Binish Desai has been strongly associated with recycling and I think that itself is the branding that helps the overall E-Tech group create products that are directly impacting the market, not just locally but also globally.

Branding has helped us create products that people can immediately start adapting to it. For example recently we have launched two new products, one is eco-jewellery which is going to be handmade out of coffee waste and the other is ecocrockeries that we are launching on Diwali. And I think these two are going to be in the segment where they became a brand of you know waste being a luxury, waste being handmade and reaching out to each and every person, each and every household. And that is the idea we want, waste that can be used as a raw material to create something new and which is also there in everyone’s house as an eco product. So just re-defining waste is what we are working on, in ways of branding it.

www.fashionvaluechain.com fashionvaluechain@gmail.com

JOURNEY OF A SUCCESSFUL EDUCATIONIST

Dr. P. V. Kadole,

Professional Journey For me, teaching is the most profession. Only education can save Societies and individuals from probable failure. I have been the Director of DKTE’s Textile and Engineering Institute, Ichalkaranji, for several years and taught both, at the graduate and postgraduate level. Till date, I have guided 4 Ph.D., 24 M. Text dissertations and 54 B. Text. projects. 4 Ph.D. Research and 7 M. Text projects are ongoing. Currently, I am Principal Investigator/ Co-ordinator of 9 Government funded projects. I am also working as Chairman, The Institution of Engineers (India) Kolhapur Local Center. I started my journey of teaching in 1990, with DKTE’s Textile and Engineering Institute, Ichalkaranji. After completing M. Tech in Textile Technology, I pursued Ph.D. in Textile Engineering in 2009. Till now, I have published 6 books, 1 book chapter, 134 papers; 59 in International Journals and 75 in National Journals. I have presented 52 papers in Conferences; 28 at International level and 24 at National level. I had participated in various National and International level Conferences to be in touch with innovative technologies in the textile field. I am a member of various professional bodies such as The Textile Institute, UK., Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC), USA, ISTE, TAI, FIE etc. I have been awarded as Best Teacher Award instituted by Rotary Director DKTE Textile and Engineering Institute,

Share your Education and Ichalkaranji Club, Ideal Teacher Award by Apte Wachan Mandir, Golden Educationist of India Award and Life Time Education Achievement Award by International Institute of Education & Management, New Delhi for Outstanding Achievements in the field of Education, Best Principal Award instituted for Exploring Advances in Engineering, Life Time Achievement Award by International Organization of Scientific Research & Development and Life Time Achievement Award 2019 by Integrated Chambers of Commerce & Industry. I was also nominated for Who’s Who of the World, USA andIBC England. As Principal/Director of DKTE’s Textile and Engineering Institute, Ichalkaranji, I have brought many laurels to the institute like: • Autonomous Status to the Institute granted by University

Grants Commission (UGC) and

Shivaji University in 2016, • Accreditation by National Assessment and Accreditation

Council NAAC by getting A+

Grade with CGPA 3.53 in 2017, • National Board of Accreditation

NBA has accredited 9 programs in the year 2017 and 2018, • Permanent Affiliation to all the programs by Shivaji University in the Year 2015 • Received Award as Best Industry Linked Technical Institute from AICTE – CII in the nationwide survey to assess the intensive interaction of institute with industry twice in 2015 & 2017 Got the Award as Best Institute for Textile Engineering from Ministry of Textiles, Govt. Of India Because of the interaction with Textile industry and Textile Machinery manufacturing Organisations, the Institute has received many State-of-the-Art machines and equipments as Gift, free of cost from leading textile machinery manufacturers like Rieter, Trutzscler, Somet, Savio, Fongs, Then, Schlafhorst, SSM, Kirloskar Toyoda, Murata, Sulzer, Smit, Dornier, Mayer & Cie, etc. Brought several funded projects from various ministries, Govt. Departments Consistently securing good Ranks for the institute in various surveys conducted by Magazines like CSR, HER, Silicon, EFY Our institute is figured amongst the Top 50 Self-financed Colleges in the country, in “ATAL Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA 2020)”, published by Ministry of Education, Government of India (Rank 33 rd ) Signed MoUs with following Foreign Universities North Carolina State University, USA (NCSU) Hochschule Niederrhein University, Germany Troy University, USA University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), USA The Copperbelt University