Waste Cannot Remain a Municipal Problem; It Has to Become a Business: Blue Planet CEO

There are multiple reasons behind it. First and foremost is the highly isolated and fragmented nature of the industry. Everyone is trying to solve the problem in a fragmented manner, and that is why it has never reached the right resolution.

Whether it is waste collection, transportation, processing, upcycling or recycling, we wanted to change that by building an integrated process for waste management.

We wanted to contain the end-to-end value chain in some form and build a solution where ownership lies with one or two players rather than half a dozen different players. If half a dozen players own different parts of the solution, the problem never gets solved.

That was one important thesis behind Blue Planet.

The second aspect was technology-driven execution. Historically, the waste management sector has largely been based on a "lift-and-shift" model, with limited focus on processing or upcycling. That is something we wanted to change through our offerings.

The third aspect wa

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s building a solution driven by ESG-mandated execution. We don't want to solve one problem and create three others. We wanted to ensure that our operations are aligned with ESG principles and create a net positive impact for people, the planet and the prosperity of our stakeholders.

Waste definitely has to be one of the key priorities for Viksit Bharat over the next 25 years.

You can have smarter technologies and smarter transportation infrastructure, but if waste is not solved, it will continue to become a much larger challenge that will be difficult to tackle if we postpone it for the next 10 or 15 years.

People say that 70% of India's infrastructure over the next 20 years is yet to be built. Just imagine the amount of investment and infrastructure that will be created and the exponential growth in waste generation that will accompany it.

If we don't tackle this today, build the processes and policies, enforce those policies and create a robust ecosystem for a permanent solution, waste will become a menace that will be extremely difficult to address in the years to come.

That is one transformational change we need to bring to India. Many times, India gets compared with developed or more advanced countries, but we also need to understand that in those countries, the responsibility for social issues such as waste management is shared by citizens.

People are more aware and engaged, and solutions are built with active citizen participation.

That is something we, as Indian citizens, have to adopt. We should become part of the solution rather than giving the entire responsibility to municipalities. That model is not going to work for our future if we want a more sustainable solution.

The moment citizens start contributing and participating—for example, through source segregation, adopting solutions at home, and getting children and young people involved in schools and colleges—the overall awareness will improve.

Source segregation is the biggest challenge when it comes to municipal waste. Once we achieve segregation at source, deploying technologies for further upcycling and traceability becomes much easier and more scalable.

But this can only be scaled if it is profitable as a business venture. Otherwise, it will remain a small pilot project or laboratory-scale experiment with very limited impact. We need an engaged ecosystem in which citizens participate and businesses can build commercially viable solutions for the long term.

It would be difficult to bifurcate it at that level. We don't share or collate data in that manner.

But I can give you a broader perspective.

We are a Singapore-headquartered company with a significant presence in Southeast Asia, India and other parts of the world, mainly New Zealand and the UK.

Our revenues are roughly split evenly across these three geographical regions. We will continue to grow and scale in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, both organically and through newer geographies via direct entry and local partnerships.

It is important, and I will explain why. This has to be transformational for the industry.

Unfortunately, the waste management sector, particularly in India, has historically flourished through opacity. Data was not readily available, and transparency and traceability were limited.

Over the last few years, we have started collating data and bringing transparency and traceability into the value chain.

I'll give you the example of landfill biomining, which is one of our business offerings. We are among the world's largest landfill biomining companies. This business was developed from scratch in India and scaled here. We have processed almost 20 million tonnes of waste.

But it is not only about processing. We also have to sustainably dispose of the waste.

Unless you have complete traceability and transparency across the waste value chain, it becomes very difficult to establish accountability and build a solution.

We provide municipalities and other stakeholders with complete transparency. We give them CCTV access as well as access to our ERP portal. If a municipal commissioner wakes up at 2 a.m., they can log into the portal and see how much waste has been processed over the previous two hours.

That is transformational and disruptive for an industry that has historically operated with limited transparency. Some businesses have tried to build profitability by keeping data and operations opaque. We want to do exactly the opposite. We want to be as transparent as possible, share the data and ensure that stakeholders understand and appreciate the work being done.

We want to do good while also doing well as a business.