A smooth separation

Nivedha RM, who founded the Trashbot, a machine that separates bio-degradable and non-biodegradable waste without the need for segregation, has won the 2019 Impact Maker Award  

Photos: Nivedha with the cheque; the Trashbot machine; At Kochi. Photo by Albin Mathew 

By Shevlin Sebastian 

On October 10, in Oslo, the Norwegian Minister of Trade and Industry, Torbjørn Røe Isaksen took to the stage. He was given a red envelope. The announcer said, “In this envelope, there is the name of somebody who will win a cash award of 50,000 euros (Rs 40 lakh).”

On another stage, stood the 35 short-listed participants of the 2019 Impact Maker Awards. This is a global competition for entrepreneurs who can provide unconventional solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. Isaksen said, “The winner is..” He paused, opened the envelope and shouted, “Trashcon!” There were whoops of delight among a few members of the audience as Nivedha RM, the founder of the Bengaluru-based Trashcon, wearing a black business suit, stepped forward and accepted a large cardboard cheque.

When asked how she was feeling, Nivedha said, “It’s a dream come true.” 

Nivedha had invented the TrashBot, arguably, the world’s first machine that automatically separates bio-degradable and non-bio-degradable waste, without the need for segregation at the house, office or factory.       

At the Municipal Corporation ward at Basavangudi in Bengaluru, the Trashbot machine has been placed at one side. It is made of black and red panels. A worker dumps a load of garbage at the entry area of the machine. It contains beans, potatoes, rice, shampoo bottles, a shaving brush, diapers, and yellow plastic packets. Soon, a man, wearing gloves, presses two red buttons at the same time. 

The waste moves forward and enters a magnetic shoot first. This will remove the screws and nuts. Then it goes into a second level where the batteries are removed. An arm pushes all the metals to one side. The rest of the waste moves to a loading conveyor. The food packets are cut into several slits.

“By this method, we can dislodge the bio-degradable waste that was sticking to the packet,” says Nivedha. Then it hits a blast of air. The biodegradable waste falls, even as the plastic and other materials are carried into another chamber. “That’s how the segregation takes place between non-biodegradable and bio-degradable waste,” says Nivedha.  

A worker collects the bio-degradable waste and puts it into another machine, placed nearby, where it is converted to compost, biogas or biofuel. And, thanks to a new technology invented by Nivedha and her team, the non-biodegradable waste is being converted into boards. “It looks like plywood but these are very strong,” says Nivedha. “The boards are very compact. It is water-resistant, as well as termite and rot-resistant. And it is one-fifth the price of plywood.” 

Nivedha pauses and then says, “This could become a very successful business. Many companies have shown interest.” 

At Kochi, to give a talk, Nivedha breaks out into a broad smile. So consumed is she by this passion to do something about the waste that she speaks non-stop, lunch forgotten, a woman on a mission. 

And this mission began accidentally. A couple of years ago, when Nivedha would go to attend classes at the Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering, she would notice that the streets were strewn with garbage. “I thought that instead of doing rallies or campaigns, I would clear the one-and-a-half km long stretch,” she says. So, on January 26, 2016, a group, using gloves and led by Nivedha, physically cleaned it. 

However, within a week, the waste accumulated once again. When she spoke to the chief engineer of the Bangalore corporation, he said that unless the waste is segregated, there is no chance of recycling. He said there are no more landfills in Bengaluru. “So, indirectly he was telling me the waste would remain on the streets,” says Nivedha. 

So, she decided to make a machine which would automatically segregate the waste. Her mother encouraged her by putting in Rs 2 lakhs. As she started work, she also applied for a grant to Elevate 100, an initiative of the Karnataka State Department of Information Technology and Biotechnology to provide a comprehensive entrepreneurship platform for startups. Out of 3000 applications, 100 were chosen. And Nivedha got selected and got a grant of Rs 10 lakhs. 

Through numerous trial and error methods, over two years, and with the help of a friend Saurabh Jain, a chemical engineer as well as a chartered accountant, who later joined her company, as Co-Founder, the TrashBot was made. Now Nivedha wants to spread the word so that many more municipal corporations can use it and avoid the necessity of piling up garbage in landfills. “By using Trashbot, one day, there will be no waste at all,” says the 24-year-old.