Kabadiwalas are the latest to take business online in Gurgaon

Your kabadiwala has now joined the list of service providers who have taken their business online. Scrap dealers are now available on web portals to buy household junk like newspaper, iron, plastic, books and notebooks from residents and recycle them.

“Don’t waste the waste, it can be reused and recycled,” said Prashant Chanchal, a founder-member of Rekart, one of the online portals providing such a service. An alumnus of IIT-Madras, Chanchal and his friends KJ Venkatesh, Anurag Tiwari and Rishabh Bhatia launched the doorstep service in May 2015 in Gurgaon.

A customer has to give a missed call or submit a request online to avail their services. Within 24 hours, he or she will get a call from the team and two persons will be sent to collect the waste material. They also use a digital device to weight the scrap material.

“We have a friendly service, we recycle what you sell. Our plan is to expand the service to other cities in the future,” Tiwari said.

Other players in the city like “Greenobin” and “ExtraCarbon” also provide similar services and are able to attract a good number of people.

These online portals collect scrap material from houses, industries and institutions. The collected waste is segregated and then sent to respective recyclers.

“It is a huge opportunity,” said Venkatesh. According to Gaurav Joshi of ExtraCarbon, the country’s garbage generation stands at about 0.2 to 0.6 kg of garbage per head, per day. ExtraCarbon has over 16,000 users and is registering over 100 new users every day. It is presently operational in Delhi, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Noida, and Ludhiana.

Likewise, Greenobin, which is located at Sector 48, also leaves recycling bags with their customers and has a standardised price for every material.

These firms are also integrating kabadiwalas in the city and assigning them to larger communities. The trend seems to have gathered acceptance among users as well. Chirag Gupta, a resident of Sector 56, said, “I have been using the Rekart for the last two to three months and the service is really good. One doesn’t have to face weight tampering and the rate is fixed.”