Gujarat based RecycleX.in has redefined plastic pollution, winning acclaim from all across the world. Recyclex. It is a team of 5 people with Abhishek Chhazed & Vedant Gandhi as its co-founders. In 2018, Abhishek worked on developing paver blocks from plastic waste for his 3rd year’s project. With the help of Vedant’s expertise in building material, who returned from Germany after his masters. They then worked for 6 months to manufacture and test their product and did market study simultaneously. With success in their attempt, they launched Paver Blocks in August 2020 as their first innovative product.
Abhishek one of the founders said, “As humans, we don’t face the true wrath of Global Warming/Climate change as we have all the luxury to use technology for our use. But in reality, with the temperature rising each year, hundreds of species are on the verge of extinction, and hundreds are already extinct. We handle the destruction, and as advanced species, we think of ourselves, it is our duty to mitigate the problem we started.”
In the short period, they have achieved 10,000 sq. ft and recycled 6000 Kg of plastic waste, 10 Tonne of industrial waste, and saved 1 tonne of Carbon dioxide emissions. It featured them in Top-30 Social Innovators in India under Youth-Colab 2020. They were also the finalist of Circular Economy Challenge 2020 hosted by Ekconnect and EU. They successfully did their Pilot Project with the Government of Gujarat and Bharuch Municipal Corporation and were recognised by AIC, UNDP, Startup-India, Ekconnect and various institutions.
Plastic is one of the most versatile materials in the world. Said that it poses one of the biggest threats to humanity today. In India, we have reached such a height that every corner of a city turns into waste spots as there is no alternative as local bodies lack the infrastructure and technology to recycle it. This threatening problem had to be dealt with through innovation and technology. With that motive, Abhishek Chhazed and Vedant started their journey of Recyclex. They worked on recycling municipal plastics, industrial carbon waste, construction, and demolition waste (C&D) waste. They manufacture Paver Blocks from plastic, Industrial and C & D waste.
First, they have a network of rag pickers through which they collect plastic waste. By eliminating middlemen, they are providing them premium prices for the waste which before were unavailable. This waste is then segregated and cleansed. They are also building a fully automated platform to track the data of collected waste at each checkpoint. This would be quite crucial once they scale to large cities and areas. As it cleans the waste, we shred it into smaller pieces for better functionality.
“As we utilise waste, our complete manufacturing process is carbon negative, meaning we absorb CO2. Apart from that, we utilise plastic & industrial waste. Once installed, we can look at our product like trees planted as the complete process took waste and Carbon dioxide away,” said Abhishek.
Abhishek has also suggested many ways to save our mother Earth:
1) Recycle/reuse as many things we can
2) Stop using petroleum products/ coal
3) Installation of renewable energy power plants
4) Plant trees
5) Raise awareness
Abhishek says, “What we felt is the lack of awareness about the gravity of the problem which we are facing and what are the after-effects that will occur if everything goes at the same pace. In terms of the startup, as our product was, according to IS standards, was similar in appearance and was cheaper, we faced little resistance from the market. We also got support from the government and various other people at each step.”
Abhishek is confident that innovations like Paver Blocks are solutions to the staggering pollution issue that the world faces today. All it needs is putting our knowledge and science to practice. “The worst is over, the upcoming years would only be better,” said Abhishek as he signs off.
Written By: Vartika Prasad