Shubham Chowdhury
Magesh Adithya V
Siddharth Gopal
Pranjal Thareja
Siddhi Sharma
Siddhi Shinde
Goa Institute of Management
Divya Singhal
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Switcheko aims to help businesses become sustainable by providing them access to 100% sustainable and eco-friendly raw materials. Their mission is to reduce the impact of human activities on the planet, and they are doing that by helping companies access sustainable raw materials and products like recycled fiber, biodegradable plastics, recycled paper, sugar bagasse-based products, and others, from authorized and verified sources across the globe. They also work with companies to design sustainable products managing the complete lifecycle of the products.
Akshay Deshpande, company co-iounder, started switcheko to reduce waste generated by business organizations. It is a Hyderabad, India-based B2B marketplace for sustainable packaging. They help responsible businesses bring zero-waste to their customer.
Switcheko provides awareness training to industries and audit services and provides a marketplace to them. When waste management companies go and collect recyclable waste against their products, switcheko gives them eco points.
When waste management companies collect waste, some companies turn it into new products. They ask switcheko to design the product from engineering design to graphic design. They also make prototypes and product packaging.
Deshpande studied hotel management and has more than a decade of experience in this industry. The waste produced by the hotel industry was a concern and he realized there was a dire need for this waste to be reduced and reused. When he worked at Recykal, a waste management company, he got a chance to visit Gazipur in Delhi. "I was lucky in my life I had to visit Gazipur," he said, where he realized there were problems but no solutions to the waste situation where trash was collected but not segregated, a critical issue. Collected waste goes to a landfill (like in Gazipur) or a DRCC (dry resource collection center).
Deshpande had done an ergonomics study on safai mitra (workers collecting waste and working on it). "When I was doing my study, I was there in the dump yard for six months and saw how the workers are being exploited financially, physically and mentally," he noted. "They face a lot of health issues, which is unacceptable. Hence I planned to work with them and help them as much possible."
Since 60% of waste that is generated in India comes from industries, he decided to start the business to business marketplace. "The gap between India's waste processing capacity and the used capacity is enormous. We have the capability, but we don't utilize it. Hence, I decided to use it," he added. "Since the main problem is segregation and access to suitable products, to add a proper channel and work around them to give them a proper switch, we decide to name the company switcheko," he explained.
Switcheko has been operating in a niche business environment. From providing awareness trainings and auditing services to helping them with the design and engineering of their products to providing a marketplace to waste management companies to sell, switcheko has created a whole end-to-end system for recycled products.
Switcheko is also making various recycled product prototypes and has been patenting them as they move forward. They already have seven product patents which will give them a huge boost in the long run.
The impact of this innovation on the environment is going to be huge, he believes. They also do lifecycle analysis of previous products against their new products, and have concluded that switcheko is around 200-275% more sustainable than the older products.
Switcheko is a bootstrapped start-up. It has opened a new market for sustainable packaging. It provides businesses with the complete package, which includes moving them towards sustainable packaging and making them aware of sustainability and its importance.
Switcheko is not just creating and selling a product,, it is selling a whole package right from prototype, engineering design to graphic design of a product, its packaging and also customization of materials.
Switcheko closely works with 200+ waste management agencies, providing them with a new marketplace and employment opportunities for laborers who segregate waste.
Switcheko is a B2B platform, where a business seeking to switch towards sustainable packaging can do so with the help of switcheko, becoming a stakeholder in bringing about a positive impact on the environment and moving towards a sustainable future.
Keeping the environment clean is one of the prerequisites for leading a healthy and happy life. The company promotes the use of sustainable products and efficient management of waste material.
The first major problem was segregation and the second one was not having the proper access to segregate. Switcheko wanted to formalize things and help those industries that want to segregate the waste and help industries to make them switch. That is how the company got its name: switcheko. The company works with 200 plus waste management companies and the impact on the environment is going to be huge on environment, he maintains. "When we do lifecycle analysis of previous products against switcheko products, it is around 200-275% more sustainable than their products," he said. Smartly managing waste helps conserve natural resources including minerals, water and wood. This is the effect of reducing, reusing and recycling.
When waste is disposed of efficiently, less reaches the landfills which conserves space and reduces the production of harmful substances.
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Akshay Deshpande, Co-Founder
Switcheko, India's first business to business (B2B) marketplace, aims to help businesses in becoming sustainable by providing them access to 100% sustainable & eco-friendly products.