EcoFriend

A startup that converts agricultural waste into cellulose and organic manure in a completely eco-friendly way.

I'm native to a village in India where the plantation is the most common form of agriculture and most people depend on it for their livelihoods. Areca nut, Coconut, Chikoo and Silver Oak are the most common plantations here. A lot of waste like areca and coconut leaves, areca and coconut husk, and trimmed oak branches are produced in the plantations. This waste is just littered in the fields and left to decay eventually.

The majority of the population of the village and the surrounding area is comprised of plantation owners and very few people who don't own much land work as labourers in the plantations. Labourers are needed in the plantations only on certain days of the month. The imbalance in demand and supply results in a lack of labourers for work when required and no work for the labourers on other days. Also, there is no fixed pay for the labourers as they work for daily wages and whoever offers them the most gets to work as soon as they need them. As a whole unorganised nature of the agricultural labour sector is a problem for both employer and the employee.

On a larger scale, deforestation is a global hazard and the paper industry has a significant contribution to it. A large number of trees are cut to produce paper around the world. A sustainable alternative that does not involve cutting trees for paper production is the need of the hour.

We will set up a manufacturing unit in the village where we will extract and process cellulose from agricultural waste. we will collect the agricultural waste from all the plantations of that village and use it to manufacture cellulose. Cellulose will be extracted using several chemical and mechanical techniques while ensuring that these processes are not hazardous to the surroundings and the environment. After the cellulose extraction from the biomass, the remaining sludge will be used to cultivate mushrooms. The decaying sludge will serve as a source of nutrition for the mushrooms. Mushrooms will be cultivated using conventional techniques. After the mushrooms are harvested the sludge will have been converted into organic manure. This organic manure will then be distributed to the farmers in exchange for the agricultural waste they provide as a raw material to manufacture cellulose. 

EcoFriend mainly aims to reduce the global deforestation caused due to paper industry. EcoFriend affects the life of all of us, aiming to establish sustainability while creating a productive technique for agricultural waste management. At the ground level, this idea serves the rural population of farmers and agricultural labourers. It manages the agricultural waste produced in these farms without any cost. The agricultural labourers in this area are struggling to make the ends meet due to the unorganised nature of their job. Organizing this sector will be a dream come true for them.

I'm a part of the village in which we operate and being from the agricultural background I understand the problem and requirements of the plantation owners and labourers of the village. Our family also owns areca nut and chikoo plantations. Therefore, I have a firsthand experience of the problems faced by the people of this community.

I'm a part of the village in which we operate and being from an agricultural background I understand the problem and requirements of the plantation owners and labourers of the village. Our family also owns areca nut and chikoo plantations. Therefore, I have a firsthand experience of the problems faced by the people of this community. A large part of the solution is based on the suggestions provided by the labourers who work with us on our plantation. After several rounds of discussion with friends and relatives belonging to this underserved population and taking implications from my personal experience, I have come up with this solution.

I have explained this idea to several households individually and at many community ceremonial and religious gatherings. This idea has received overwhelming positive feedback and many women in the village are eager to join the manufacturing unit once it opens. All plantation owners have also deemed it a very convenient way to significantly reduce their workload and cut down the cost spent on weeding the plantations.

We have also received an exploratory microgrant from MIT SolvED as a part of the SolvED Youth Innovation Challenge. And we have done rigorous user research to understand the problem well.

Our target customers are paper factories and industries that use cellulose as a raw material. We will be selling the cellulose manufactured using the agricultural waste to these industries.We will price the cellulose at a lower cost compared to the market cost even though we are at par with the conventionally manufactured cellulose available in the market. This will create a demand for our product. We can make a good profit even though we sell our product at a lower price as we receive the raw material at a negligible cost.