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Safe Trash Enterprises
Waste Ventures Incubates and Empowers Garbage Collectors

By: Bianca Bartz (Superstar) Jan 11, 12

Waste Ventures is a social enterprise tackling the toxic issue of global waste through a holistic model geared at collecting, composting, recycling and reusing waste. The founder, Parag Gupta, took his social business to the next level of sustainability through the development of a model that not only helps the environment, but that also improves the living conditions of workers.

“Waste Ventures incubates solid waste management companies owned and operated by waste pickers,” the company explains. “We provide them a solid waste management blueprint to recycle, compost, and earn carbon credits from waste collected.”

Currently in India, professional waste pickers earn an average of a dollar a day—not nearly enough to take care of their families, let alone send their children to school—and they have a life expectancy of just 45 years.

The infographic video featured above was produced by Waste Ventures and illustrates the story of Rajiv, a waste collector in India, along with some frightening stats on the environmental and social harm caused by a lack of safe waste management. A few key points:

India generates 40 million tons of trash each year
Each year that number grows by 2 million tons
Only 25% of that trash is collected
Methane is 23x more harmful than CO2

Dealing with waste is a pressing global issue, and Waste Ventures hopes to tackle the problem at the root while also offering safe, ethical, and environmentally-friendly employment opportunities.

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Source: wasteventures.org