Help Us Green, founded by two 26-year-olds in 2015, collects floral waste from temples, mosques, gurudwaras along the Ganges and converts it into natural and chemical-free lifestyle products. Currently, the startup collects around 1.5 tonnes of floral waste from Kanpur and 8 tonnes from Varanasi.
The waste is composted and converted into plant fertilizers and incense sticks.
Not only does it keep the floral waste, often laden with chemical-induced pesticides, from ending up in the river, the startup has also generated employment opportunities for the local residents.
The flowers are dried up and rolled into incense sticks by women’s self-help groups. Men, who worked as manual scavengers earlier, have been assigned the dignified job of collecting floral waste from places of worship.
Established by Ankit Agarwal and Karan Rastogi, the two-year-old startup has many awards to its credit now. The two have not needed any funding yet and don’t foresee the need yet either.
Source : http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/kanpur-startup-working-to-clean-ganga-technology-to-detect-oil-leakages-turn-heads/