Sweden-based H&M Foundation and Social Alpha have joined hands to launch “Techtonic – Innovations in Waste Management”, a nationwide challenge to identify locally designed, disruptive innovations addressing problems in waste management and improving the livelihoods of waste pickers.
The aim is to create an enabling ecosystem stack for innovators and entrepreneurs developing waste management solutions with a focus on supply chains efficiencies, logistics traceability and waste to value systems. Top 5 winners of Techtonic will join the first cohort of Social Alpha Waste Innovations Accelerator and receive support in their lab-to-market journey. The Accelerator will provide start-ups support with fully paid pilots, expert guidance, go to market strategy, ecosystem access and an opportunity to pitch for seed capital investment up to Rs. 1 crore.
Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan said: “Waste is a real resource and waste to health is a concept. We need to mitigate and address the environmental concerns as well as ensure this resource needs to be recycled, reused, and effectively channelized. All of us need to come together to tackle this challenge. India is one of the fastest developing countries in the world. With rapid urbanization, good waste management becomes an especially important goal for new India. It will make our cities clean, smart, liveable, and resilient.”
He said Techtonic initiative would help add much-needed impetus to accelerate this process and tackle the enormous amount of waste being generated regularly.
Applications are now being invited from start-ups that are working on addressing the challenges in waste management, such as
Network Optimization: innovative solutions to build the supply chain efficiency of waste generated; Data for waste management: Technology solutions for end-to-end waste traceability, transparency and visibility of the waste supply chain; and Waste to Value: Enabling recycling and resource recovery from waste streams through innovations, with a focus on low value waste.
Apply by January 31 on https://www.socialalpha.org/techtonic-innovations-in- waste-management/
