Ankita Shroff, a charismatic, young entrepreneur and co-founder of ‘Sustain and Save ‘,

Interviewed a 26 years old Tedx speaker, serial entrepreneur, commonly called as ‘The Recycle Man of India’, Dr. Binish Desai. Dr. Binish Desai is a waste Warrior with Many Innovations to his names and a true Entrepreneur in the Spirit.

“There is nothing useless in this world; what might be a waste to you is someone’s asset”.

- Dr. Binish Desai

Dr. Binish Desai, being a small town boy started his entrepreneurship journey  in the field of sustainability at a very tender age of 11 by carrying out a home based experiment with a chewing gum. But today he has  178 eco-products under eco-eclectic technology and has identified 67 different types of wastes in nature that can be recycled.

Start of the Journey

During the interview he shared that his favorite two cartoon characters ‘captain planet’ and ‘Dexter’s lab ‘ inspired him to do something to  save the  planet. He shared that  his first ever experiment, with a chewing gum was at the age of 10, where he first time got the idea of using chewing gums to make new homes.

Mr. Desai during his classes heard about the word slum and the condition of the slum area and that was when. he dreamed of making  world’s cheapest house and he knew that he can just rebuild slums into more affordable housing in a planned manner. He said he had no knowledge of construction but knew about the construction of Lego house. He failed several times. He was on the road that was never taken by anyone up till then , and  Whenever he tried to present his ideas to the people but was always mocked by the rest , no-one believed him .But the time came up eventually when Mr Desai started shining , he got selected at Rotary Youth Initiative at US for a year and after coming back he decided to have his own companywithout any office or legal papers ,he barely had a place to work , but then he approached a paper mill , but after declining his request , the paper mill company showed him a parking area next to an open gutter , near the mill, and that was when he started making brickes using his own procedure and proved the whole world wrong.

Current Scenario 

Dr. Binish said that they opened a salon for waste where they transformed  waste in to products that were totally  eco-friendly and also economical .And there are  Almost 150 products are made out of waste. He introduced the ‘triple bottom line’ which consists of maintaining the balance of environment sustainability, economic sustainability, and social impact which created the base of the company. About the products, he told that the bricks made from waste of paper mill are now about 16 varied types, more than 40 different types of wastes that are generated from various industries and domestic spaces in terms of mass scales, collection of garbage, etc. Apart from these, products include paver blocks that are made from metal wastes, Ecowoods from human hairs where hairs are collected from various salons through a specific segregation process. 

Circular economy is created where their own waste becomes their own treasure. More products like Coffee mugs from coffee wastes, acoustic panels, and sound proofing panels have been created. These products are not just being conventional materials available in the market but they are also cost effective, stronger and more durable which creates an impact on the people who are in need. They have not only helped rural India but also expanded over to Philippines and United States.

Tips to Attain Sustainability At Home (By- Dr. Binish Desai)

• Reduce Waste - Buy Things that you need and not the things that you want. Waste increases just because we feel that we want it but not the things we need and it remains useless and then thrown out as waste. 
• Segregation of Waste - Segregating waste into wet and dry waste. 
• Recycling at home - Learning from DIY’s, small techniques. Mother’s are Recyclers - Listen to them.
• Spreading Awareness - Educating ourselves and other’s about this.

Following these simple steps at home we can attain sustainability at home.

Be the change and not the problem!!

By : Mitali S. Sarlashkar