Hyd-based startup E-waste Exchange wins ‘Swachch Bharat Grand Challenge’

Hyderabad-based e-waste management startup Sanshodhan E-Waste Exchange, along with three other startups has won Startup India’s Swachch Bharat Grand Challenge. E-Waste Exchange won the challenge for its e-waste management solution under the waste management category.

The Swachch Bharat Grand Challenge was organised by Invest India, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) and Swachh Bharat Mission to encourage startups to work on innovative solutions that solve problems in the areas of Sanitation, Waste management, Water and Wastewater management, Air management.

Under sanitation, startups needed to provide solutions for problems faced in rural and urban areas. For waste management, the challenge was to find solutions in the entire cycle of waste management supply chains, which could include anything from collection, disposal, processing, and recycling of the waste. Under water and wastewater management, startups had to develop solutions on making the wastewater usable. And finally, startups looking into decreasing the air pollution, and developing air purifiers could apply for the air management domain.

Founded by S Devi, an economist, V Shivaani, a social development expert, Sandeep, an engineer and Dr Shalini Sharma, an environment management and policy professional, E-waste Exchange collects electronic waste from individuals, corporations, schools, colleges, governments and even electronic and electrical equipment producers to hand it over to effective, authorised recyclers, thus contributing in the creation of a circular economy.

To be able to send your e-waste to be recycled, all you need to do is visit E-waste Exchange’s website, register the electronics you want to give away and schedule a pick up. A person from E-Waste Exchange then picks up the waste, pays you for it and then transfers it to a Government authorised and technically sound dismantlers or recyclers.

“It is a great thing to win this, given thousands of startups applied. Our USP, which is that we focus on what happens after waste collection and that our solution helps in implementation of the e-waste policy helped us win this award. And winning an award from the government enhances our credibility and we hope that this gives us inroads to work with various government departments in helping them manage their e-waste. We plan to soon approach these departments to work with them,” Shalini Sharma said.

The other startups to win the first prize were Maclec Technical Project Laboratory for its air management solution, Altersoft Innovations India for sanitation and Revy environmental solutions for water management. The four startups will a prize money of Rs 2 lakh from Startup India.

Four more startups were awarded the second prize. These were Small Spark Concepts for air management, Naturesani Private Limited for sanitation, Flycatcher Technologies, and EF Polymer Private Limited for water management. All these startups will win a prize money of Rs 1 lakh.