Hyderabad-based plastic recycling startup Banyan Nation has won the Dell People’s Choice Award for Circular Economy Entrepreneur as part of the Circulars Awards at the World Economic Forum being held at Davos. It is the first ever Indian firm to be shortlisted for and to win the Circular Economy awards.
The announcement was made on Monday night at the World Economic Forum.
Banyan Nation’s work for Tata Motors in automotive bumper recycling and its partnership with L’Oréal, the French cosmetics giant, in shampoo bottle recycling put the company on the global sustainability map.
Thank you, everyone for recognising and supporting our work! @KTRTRS @MinIT_Telangana @SrinKollipara @investindia @PMOIndia @Steven_Okun @LOrealParisIn @TataMotors @CircularsAwards @KKR_Co @THubHyd https://t.co/166jEiyL7a
— Banyan Nation (@Banyan_Nation) January 23, 2018
The Circulars, an initiative of the World Economic Forum, is the world’s premier circular economy award program. The award offers recognition to individuals and organizations across the globe that are making notable contributions to the circular economy in the private sector, public sector and society. The annual awards are hosted at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos.
Banyan Nation is a five-year-old startup founded by Mani Vajipey and Raj Madangopal that leverages data intelligence to integrate thousands of last mile informal waste collectors and large bulk waste generators into its supply chain.
This T-Hub startup initially mapped out waste collectors across Hyderabad through a mobile app and was engaged in segregating and recycling plastic.
It has now developed a proprietary plastic cleaning technology that converts collected plastic waste into near virgin quality recycled granules (Better Plastic™) that global brands can use to make mainstream products and packaging.
It has signed an MoU with the Telangana government to help develop a standard operating procedure for government-generated e-waste where the government will use Banyan Nation’s IoT-enabled dashboard for waste management.
It is also the winner of the Intel & DST Innovate for India Challenge 2.0, for which it created a zero-waste platform to streamline and automate urban recycling operations at all stages.