Bengaluru: She loves to talk trash. Not literally though. With a single goal in mind, to stop waste before it stops us, Nupur Tandon is leaving no stone unturned to preserve our biodiversity. On World Environment Day on June 5, we spoke to Nupur, who is doing her bit to re-connect with nature through ‘Prowaste, A Call To Action’. Headquartered at Bengaluru, she provides comprehensive waste management services that maximise resource value, while minimising environmental impact.
After graduation, Nupur moved to France, where she learnt French. After she moved back to Delhi, she worked at the French Embassy, but the 9 to 5 job didn’t give her the satisfaction that she was looking for. At that point of time, she enrolled for her master’s in environmental sciences. “When I moved to Bengaluru, I realised waste management was the need of the hour. So after MSc, I started working at the ‘ground’ level, doing voluntary work. I implemented projects in many apartments and buildings. I had been conceptualising Prowaste and was looking at solution providers for municipal solid waste. I spent my personal savings to get started and now it’s sustainable. I am focusing on institutions and government organizations. I’m very passionate about this social enterprise and want more people to be in sync with the environment.”
Ask her how she’s planning to spread awareness and she explains, “I do sessions and presentations which help people understand that waste is a resource and should be managed effectively. “Implementation of waste management is a challenge and I’m constantly working on this. Our ongoing projects are at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru and at Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar. I’m also working for a project at MEG, Ulsoor. I want a city without landfills, with decentralised management of municipal solid waste and am setting up end- to-end process on site, to create zero waste zones. When I finish a particular project, I want it to function in an auto mode.”
She is clearly on a mission. “I work closely with generators of waste to devise ways of how to manage waste for segregation, storage and end disposal and have streamlined many processes from the source. I also help in tying up with tech providers, who take a particular category of waste for proper disposal rather than dumping it in landfills.”
