Recent innovations in the waste management sector in India have been addressing the challenges of fragmentation and lack of source traceability which have been a roadblock for adoption of advanced recycling technologies in the country. Adoption of digital technologies across the dry waste value chain has been advancing to ensure efficiency and resource optimisation and has helped in creating financially viable business models. Similarly, value chain integration to drive high value application of waste streams is critical to not only offset the recycling costs, but to also enable production of alternatives to the fossil fuel based products. The joint venture formed between Hasiru Dala Innovations and Carbon Masters to convert municipal solid organic waste into bottled Bio CNG is an illustration of crystallizing such opportunities in the waste supply chain.

India’s progressive regulatory landscape in waste management allows for unlocking new business avenues and this is being complemented by the voluntary commitment from global brands and retailers to make their packaging 100% recyclable, or compostable, and to increase the utilization of recycled materials. A demand for alternate materials based on renewables rather than fossil fuel- based feedstocks has led to a surge in the pipeline of start-ups in the bio-innovations space, which can also enable sector-specific closed loop systems. Saaf Energy has done just that in collaboration with a dairy in a village in Uttar Pradesh by providing clean cooking fuel and bio-fertilisers to the community. Treating the organic waste generated daily by the dairy, this closed loop system has been successful in addressing a major stumbling block in waste management viz, establishing an economically feasible business model to treat the organic waste.

Another example is Phool, which started off as a recycling company developing charcoal-free incense products made of waste flowers from the temples. Phool has now transitioned to become India’s first biomaterials start-up with vegan leather and biodegradable packaging material in the pipeline and has been able to attract mainstream capital in their series A funding round. Emission reduction targets also rely significantly on our ability to inject new sustainable materials in products which are critical for climate action at scale - batteries, solar panels, electric vehicles, and wind turbines etc. There is a dire need to increase the supply of early-stage risk capital to facilitate the lab to market journey of breakthrough innovations in this space. Innovations for methane capture from legacy waste, including biochemical and microbial breakthroughs will be required to address emission goals at scale but require focussed investment in research and development.

To achieve climate action through waste management and circularity, we need a multistage innovation curation and venture development framework, with access to risk capital at each stage. It also requires the infrastructure support for lab testing and iterations. The good news is that the government and CSR funding through incubators and accelerators has been slowly enabling the pipeline build up but more private sector involvement in pilots and market access will go a long way to increase the number of investible start-ups.