A start-up for waste collection poised to go places

There seems to be more wealth in waste than what meets the eye. When he picked up the thermocol packing material lying on the roadside, S Mohan Prabhu did not quite know that someone would actually pay him for collecting the stuff.

“I picked up the stuff with the intention of disposing it of in the garbage bin, but found that the shopkeeper who was watching me collect the material was willing to pay for it. I realised that there is money in collecting the material,” he said, recalling his entry into waste collection business.

A zoology graduate with a post-graduate degree in management, Prabhu started his career as a marketing executive. “I worked for seven years before entering this trade,” he told BusinessLine , talking about his venture Kuppaikadai.com. The two-year-old start-up is run by management graduates – Prabhu and his friend N Arun Prakash.

Basically into collection of junk material from households and corporates, the duo collect the old stuff that people want to dispose of from their doorstep and make the payment instantly.

Prabhu visits his customers sporting a t-shirt bearing the name of his venture, Kuppaikadai.com. “Households are generally reluctant to allow/ entertain strangers, particularly waste collectors into their homes. But our leaflets, introducing ourselves as management graduates willing to collect old and worn-out stuff – be it old washing machine, mixie, containers, wooden racks, vessels, literally anything that they intend to junk – from their doorstep seems to have kindled peoples interest. They call, do a check before fixing an appointment so we can go over and collect the stuff. We have a customer base of 1,500. The growth has been slow, but steady. Small foundries have sought our services for dismantling and disposing of their machinery. This involved huge sums and we did not have that kind of money. They understand our plight and give us time,” Prakash said.

The collection, Prakash says, is more organised now. “We draw up a plan, send bulk text to our existing customers, to alert them that we would be visiting their locality on a particular day so that they can keep the materials they want to dispose of ready, ahead of our visit. This makes it a lot more easy, both for our customers and us.”

Prakash is at present conducting a survey to extend this concept across Madurai, Tirunelveli and Nagercoil. “We need to understand the market before foraying into newer towns.”

The collected junk is segregated and sold to merchants who deal with scrap waste.

Waste collection is nothing new, but the way Kuppaikadai has taken it forward reveals its possibilities in the digital age.

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