Innovation

YIMBY was founded in 2019 with the goal of providing safe, flexible, economical, and sustainable waste management solutions while remaining responsible towards the environment. YIMBY offers a wide range of high-quality waste handling and storage products, merchandise, IEC material, plug & play sewage treatment plants, and services. They also have an in-house team of waste reduction experts to support all services.

Besides waste management solutions YIMBY focuses on awareness programs. These include workshops, cleanliness drives, capacity building and training, IEC events, and community events. These programs aim at inculcating positive behaviors towards the environment amongst all stakeholders.

The approach taken for solid and liquid waste management is to keep things simple. Their solution is to handle the waste in a decentralized and comprehensive manner, then treat it and dispose of it responsibly.

YIMBY provides consultants and services to make their client's events “Zero Waste”. A zero-waste event tries to keep the waste generated to a bare minimum and if there is any waste, it is recycled. They especially focus on limiting the use of raw materials and reducing waste at source.

Beach clean-up drive at Dandi Beach, Goa

Inspiration

Gaurav Pokle was traveling in Spain when he realized the contrasting difference between Spain and his home country, India. He saw that while there was plenty of waste generated there, the waste services were very prompt and efficient in handling it. This inspired him to come back to India and start his own waste management company.

According to Gaurav, education is key to waste management. He goes on to say that people must be educated and made aware of what happens to the waste they generate. He started out by conducting awareness programs and doing clean-up drives and was invited by the Goa government to advise the municipalities on how to manage the collected waste. This led him to start dealing with waste management solutions for both the public and private sectors. He realized that all the stakeholders needed to actively be responsible for their waste as the waste is only increasing with urbanization. Only around 60% of waste is collected and only a fraction of the collected waste is treated properly.

Overall impact

The overall impact of YIMBY is to reduce the carbon footprint by recycling as much waste as possible. Educating people about waste resource management and running various initiatives to reduce overall waste will contribute positively to society in terms of clean sanitation.

Innovative products such as biodegradable cutlery, toothbrush, straw, and Stirrer have helped reduce the use of single-use plastic in these forms. Also, the advanced technologies that YIMBY uses help treat both household and commercial waste at a faster rate and help in the overall reduction of waste that will be dumped in landfills. YIMBY has helped purify 7,80,000 liters of water, save 30,000,000 trees, and clean 42,000 kilograms of air. YIMBY helps society understand the importance of waste resource management, efficient waste management, and clean sanitization. The impact can already be seen with various public and private entities choosing biodegradable products and sustainable waste solutions.

Business benefit

This business benefits the community as it has given employment to around 20 people and has improved their livelihood. Traditionally these individuals were said to be working in the garbage collection industry. But now they take pride in saying that they work in the 'waste management and solutions industry.

They have also created house and industrial setups for waste management that subsequently leads to a cleaner space and a cleaner society. Previously, people used to throw their home and commercial garbage anywhere which used to be disposed of by the waste workers in the landfills. By their mission to clean the Earth, they have created product lines that segregate the garbage and recycle them, contributing to effective waste management. This is done by providing solutions that are decentralized and comprehensive in the handling, treatment, and disposal of waste.

Further, they are contributing to a sustainable future by producing biogas out of the wet waste that could be used for electricity generation and as cooking gas. This helps the consumers to save money on these resources as well as reuse their domestic waste.

Social and environmental benefit

YIMBY caters to private and public sector entities. They target various SDGs (i.e., 6 - Clean Water and sanitation, 9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities, 13 - Climate action, 15 - Life on land) and educate people using IEC approach which stands for Information, education, and communication where they make aware about the waste management to the rural as well as urban people.

YIMBY creates a variety of goods that decrease everyday waste and promote sustainable living, including zero waste lifestyle, home composting, garbage, and home care items. Reusable and long-lasting materials, including eco-friendly utensils, bamboo, organic cotton, and natural fibers are used to make various items.

The zero-waste lifestyle strategy promotes social justice and safeguards public health. It also enables us to stop using plastic, lessening our total environmental impact.

With proper solid waste management, we can lessen the adverse effects of trash, recover resources, gain social and environmental advantages, and move toward a more sustainable way of life.

Interview

Gaurav Pokle, Founder and Managing Director