Are you irked with the piling up of old newspapers, bottles and electronic waste in your house?
Do not fret, as help will arrive at your doorstep. Two management students have started a venture — scrapbuzz.com — that will help you locate a scrap dealer, who will collect trash from your doorstep. You can even choose whether you want to sell electronic waste, household or mixed scrap.
Two students of Sheshadripuram College — Hemanth Kumar (24) and Prabhu Kallesh (22) — decided to start the venture soon after they graduated from college last year. All a consumer has to do is log on to their website and enter the location and type of trash one wants to dispose of, and it will connect them to scrap dealers.
The website offers a place for both buyers and sellers of scrap. To understand the garbage crisis better, the two youngsters offered a questionnaire on how residents dispose waste and also visited garbage dump yards to understand the way waste was handled.
They were astonished to see how huge quantities of recyclable trash were being thrown in the dump yard. Hemanth said a majority of the citizens in the city are not aware of how lucrative these recycled products can be, and said there was a need to ensure that there was a structured manner in which garbage was disposed of. The residents can dispose of their trash and get “market” price for it.
Hemanth and Prabhu have also approached around 15 apartments and collected trash from individual houses. Over the past few months, they have managed to collect 16,960 kg of newspapers, 5,200 kg of books, 2,040 kg carton boxes, 3,400 kg of plastic, 4,240 kg of iron, 240 kg of steel, 160 kg of aluminium and 2,280 kg of electronic items.
The duo feels their efforts have helped save 51 cubic yards of space in the landfill and 68,000 kilowatt of energy by reaching out to 240 houses. Prabhu wants to ensure collection of trash from industries and hospitals, and they have tied up with 120 scrap dealers for this.
It can help you buy groceries
Their future plans include creating an app where sellers will have individual valets where the money earned from collecting trash can be used to buy various household products or monthly groceries. Hemanth says they are still in the process of building a platform and tying up with retail stores to partner with for this initiative.
