Garbage Management: The Unconventional Way of Business

Abstract

Small and medium scale enterprises play a crucial role in the economic development of any country. The innovation of new products, employment to masses, inputs to the larger organizations, all come through these enterprises only. These SMEs need to innovate the cost effective products to sustain with the stiff competition of foreign and domestic players. "Garbage-Management" is a potentially growing opportunity for micro as well as small and medium scale enterprises. There has been a lot of concern to the environmental issues with the potential contributions of organizations like UNEP, UNEO, and EEA. The environmental awareness is growing and it will be more popularized with the initiatives by Government and non Government organizations. The focus toward the recycled as well as recyclable products is increasing around the globe. MSMEs have great opportunities in this area. There are ample opportunities to grab the hidden treasure scattered around us, in the form of garbage. Indian sector is still unexplored in this area. Garbage is all pervasive and consists of lots of things in it. Garbage can be processed to convert this into high quality fertilizer, whereas segregated plastic and metal can be recycled. There are good chances of Funding from the National as well as International agencies in this area. The garbage management business can be started at different levels with varying level of investment. Micro enterprises can collect garbage and produce compost fertilizer while selling the segregated plastics and others directly to the market, whereas the plastic can be processed to make beautiful consumer products with a higher level of investment. All the opportunities and challenges (including the financial implications, environmental issues, Govt. regulations etc.) have been discussed in the present work. A number of existing projects have been compared from different countries to analyze their relevance and feasibility in the Indian context. The work will certainly help in identifying new vistas of entrepreneurial opportunities in the country, where profit and social service will go hand-by-hand.