If there’s one platform that brings masterminds together from various walks of life, the first name that comes to mind is TEDxGateway. The long wait is over, as the biggest melting pot of inspiring ideas is back with its 10th edition of TEDxGateway on 2nd December 2018. Hosted at the DOME @ NSCI Mumbai, this year, audiences can brace themselves for a promising line-up of 20+ powerhouse intellectuals, each having an extraordinary story to tell.
Staying true to its theme of ‘Ideas worth Spreading’, the event will welcome thought leaders, visionaries, disruptors and trendsetters from across fields like education, science, technology, art and culture. Bringing alive stories of passion, perseverance and persistence, every speaker is sure to evoke a sense of motivation and inspiration among the 5500+ attendees at the event. Additionally, the main event will also be webcasted across 200 campuses in India and multiple cities hosting TEDx’s across the world, targeting over 150,000+ viewers.
Dr. Binish Desai – Social Entrepreneur & Innovator, Founder – Eco Eclectic Technology:
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 PhD in Environmental Sci and technology.
He started his journey at the very young age of 11 by carrying out home based experiments with chewing gum and paper. He currently has 150+ eco-product under the Eco Eclectic Technologies banner in India.
He is a Padma Shri nominee and has received many national and international awards for his contributions such as being the youngest to be awarded with “Rotary International Alumni Humanitarian of the Year” award for South Asia, Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2018 list of successful Social Entrepreneurs etc.
He is known as the Waste Warrior and Recycle Man of India for his work in recycling more than 700 tonnes of Industrial waste. He believes that the concept of “Waste” does not exist in Nature and that it was generated purely by human consumption. Thus it is our duty to sustainably get rid of it. With a vision to eliminate the industrial waste from 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. His famous quote is “There is nothing useless in this world, what might be a waste to you is someone’s asset.
- What categories or products need urgent/extra attention as we talk of waste management?
Recycling, Upcycling and Reuse needs to be promoted in its true meaning for us to have a positive waste management. We talk a lot about clean-up drives and segregation but the urgent part is also that how do we get rid of it in a way that we don’t harm the environment.
Industrial waste is a major concern with India ranking 6th largest producer of solid waste and one way to do it is creating a sustainable revenue model for waste thus creating a market space for businesses to start taking up the challenges of creating use out of the useless.
- How do you think waste recycling assist the ecosystem?
Concept of waste doesn’t exist in nature it is a manmade concept. Nature has its own cycle of recycling. Over the years we have changed the definition of the word recycling and now use it to our convenience. A true recycling is using the material in a way to create a positive environment impact and not a negative burden.
Recycling technologies reduce nature’s burden to break down these complex materials thus helping the system.
- What’s more exciting in recycling – and if it’s viable – recovery or transformation?
Recycling is a very viable field if considered a right way. Recycling means using the material and transforming it into a new product. Useful transformation of a product leads to positive change and recovery of materials in its entirety done in an economical way leads to increase in resource and less burden on environment.
- Does bio-waste management have a revenue generation potential? If yes, do you think awareness around the same will assist further involvement?
Absolutely Bio waste recycling is a revenue generating model. And if people start getting aware of various ways bio waste can be a gold for them then automatically we will see an exponential increase in new commercially viable bio waste recycling technologies coming up. May it be packaging materials made from agro bio waste or a technology made by us which converts domestic sludges into bricks etc. Possibilities are endless.
- Interventions at individual, corporate and policy-level that you deem would work well.
Individuals / housing societies: specific waste segregation is the key for individuals trying to do their part in helping reduce waste. Solet’s consider that you create a specific segregation drive to collect only used toothpaste tubes. keep collecting them in a specific bin till it’s filled and using it to transform it into a bench of your garden. Or using coffee waste and transforming them into the coffee mugs. This creates a micro circular economy.
For corporates and industries: they should start following the principle of triple bottom line (social+environmental+economical) the solutions to their waste can become a source of revenue generation if a right tool or product is invented. Eg: at our lab, a product of waste comes from industry we research it and find an economical solution. it viable then it is used for the company’s own use or CSR and also additionally a revenue generation model is created.
- Who should bear the cost of recycling – government, user, producer, supplier, someone else?
It should be collective. Government should promote and subsidise recycling and recycled products. Users should be willing to pay a tad bit extra by buying and utilising sustainable products that reduce wastage. Producers should invest in technologies that reduce the production waste and also invest in technologies that convert post production waste into usable innovations.
- If not recycling, what other alternatives can be considered for better waste management? How can we bridge the void between eco-friendly recycling and economics-friendly recycling/efforts to address environment concerns?
The sustainable product development helps create a complete cycle of social eco-friendly and economical recycling. Upcycling is also an option although it has its own limitations. To understand and develop an economical and eco-friendly products remember the formula that if the cost of processing and logistics is less than the value of the product keeping in mind the environmental impact it will create then and only then it can be an eco-economical product. To add to this, I would also like to encourage that it also helps create a social change as India will grow with its rural population having better access to economical products.
Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)
