Journal of Small Business and Enterprise - March, 2013 - CII

SUCCESSMSME Business March 201310There's Value In WasteBangalore-based Daily Dump has developed innovative terracotta products thathelp people manage waste with minimal effortBangalore-based Daily Dump (www.dailydump.org), an innovativeMSME doing business in thearea of waste management, hasdemonstrated how a small enterprisecould make a big difference to societyin a short span of time without dilutingits business goals and profitability.Daily Dump was founded by PoonamBir Kasturi in 2006 to make an attemptto see if waste in our country can bemanaged better, to regenerate the earthand the people.Kasturi studied various compostingmethods and experimented withseveral of her own techniques beforeintroducing Daily Dump's terracottaproducts that help people do thecomposting at home with minimaleffort. The best way for an individualto help the waste issue in their city isto manage it at source. The Daily Dumpmethod of composting does not requireelectricity and is done in terracottacomposters. The material needed tolook after and maintain the compostingprocess is organic and totally chemicalfreelike neem powder, EM, biocullum,lemongrass oil, etc, thus making it ecofriendly,she explains.Kasturi started Daily Dump by digginginto her personal funds. Impressed withDaily Dump team's performance in astartup competition, a Netherlandsbasedsupport group called SharePeoplesent a marketing expert to guide thecompany in its initial growth phaseGrowth has not come easy to Daily Dumpgiven that it was pioneering a conceptthat would find takers gradually throughawareness building.Speaking about this challenge,Kasturi says, Our biggest challengeis to make composting seem simple,doable and fun. It is a very hardthing to do with the price point andmanufacturing scale we are operatingat. We have monetised a market thatdid not exist previously. And ourchallenge remains, product, productionand price, with the overarchinggoal on customer convenience.Elaborating on the innovation,she says, When I was prototypingcomposting, I found that terracotta wasthe best material because it was porousand controlled the excessive water thatis discharged during decomposition.Also having worked with crafts for a longtime, I had found that the potter's skillswere being lost; potter families no longerwanted their children to continue in thetrade because we had stopped using potsto cook, store or use in our daily lives. SoI thought this would be a great startingpoint, to be able to provide pottersa product that would provide them asteady income; while simultaneouslysolving an urban problem.In the longer run Daily Dumpwould be looking at a considerablylarge market in view of the wastemanagement challenges that Indiancities face today. She explains thatbig Indian cities produce about 3,000tonnes of waste every day. Eachhousehold generates approximately750-1,500 gm of organic waste daily.This works out to be 70% of the totalhousehold waste. Each house generatesabout 20% recyclable waste and 10%rejects daily in addition to the 70% oforganic waste that is generated.Most of waste generated by householdsand commercial establishments reachdumps that are illegal and unscientific,adversely affecting communities and thebio-diversity around them. Organic wastemixed with batteries, plastic, tubelightsand medicine pollutes ground water,soil and air. Organic waste is 60% water.The municipal department spends fuel,cartage and labour transporting water.If our cities manage organic waste atsource, we could spend tax-payers moneyon more urgent project like schools,health and infrastructure, she adds.Organic waste like vegetable scraps,fruit peels, leftover food like bread, rice,dal, bones, pasta, garden clippings, oldenvelopes (without the plastic), kitchentissue paper, etc., can be recycled intocompost by using Daily Dump products.Now, our customers keep 3,500kg of organic waste out of landfill sitesevery day in Bangalore alone by usingour products, says Kasturi, adding thatmost people have never consideredcomposting as an alternative wastemanagement process. The challenge isto convert them into believers.The other challenge is the widespreadperception of waste management assomething that the Government has todo. Daily Dump strives to get peopleto take ownership for managing theirwaste. The team aims to make peopleself-driven composters, not motivated byany extrinsic reward/device, to make it acool activity, rather than a chore.Kasturi's advice to buddingentrepreneurs: Know what you want to doand why you want to do it; be clear andhonest about that and then stick with itfor a long time before you give up.