WastED is a Chennai based social venture focused on transforming the Environment, while aiding Empowerment and Education. Primarily, we as a waste management firm have been aggregating dry waste for 4+ years in Chennai & now Bangalore.

We receive discarded glass from individuals & businesses in abundance but the glass recycling infrastructure is virtually non-existent, especially in metros. Currently, glass gets dumped in landfills especially because the informal waste sector refuses to collect it as remuneration is NIL. Add to that, collection / storage is unmanageable in urban spaces by all those involved in the waste management ecosystem (formal, informal and government bodies).

We believe glass should be valued as a resource instead of ending up as waste. With WastED’s knowledge of practical realities, on-ground expertise, regular inflow of waste glass, trained personnel and scalable infrastructure - we sought to solve the problem seamlessly!

Our goal is to set up a proof-of-concept processing facility; a first-of-its-kind (in India) that is entirely crowdfunded, which can be replicated in different Indian metros to convert glass into sand while creating jobs, producing sustainable end products & aiding in restoring the fast depleting coastal regions. As sand is the second most used resource in the world it's not surprising that we are facing a sand shortage globally, therefore, we also aim to provide an alternative to sand mining.

Conclusion:

These mammoth problems can be simply solved with long term, widespread impact through this facility . Inspired by the story of Glass Half Full, NOLA and the steadiness of their growth and expansion of their operations, we have full confidence that this proof of concept in India will not only be successful (as proven by Glass Half Full for coastal cities prone to flooding) but is long overdue!

With that in mind, our goals are:

To divert and transform glass waste into sand(and gravel) for disaster relief, coastal restoration, eco-construction thereby creating a circular economy that benefits our environment multifold.
To provide livelihood and create jobs in a self-sufficient model post pilot with a focus on dignity of labour for waste pickers
To bring the monetary value back to waste glass aiding the informal waste sector to collect it as they used to
To track impact and amplify R&D in coastal restoration, flood prevention and biodiversity protection
To adopt & educate 100 bulk waste generators of glass under this program like hotels, restobars etc.
To conduct waste collection drives to aid collection and awareness.
To support in the protection of biodiversity and habitat restoration (The process by-product has been site tested by NOLA and is safe for the environment as it doesn’t leach toxins)
To involve the community and key players like citizen action groups, government bodies , environmentalists, researchers and disaster management specialists for long term impactful change

This campaign is aligned to UNSDG numbers 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 16 and 17.

We’d like to thank Glass Half Full, NOLA for inspiring and setting a standard for us. Please watch this video to understand this project better - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIOTsBhFF7M