 There was this stretch of land which was filled with waste and like anybody, we want to clean it up. We clean it up. But then the waste reappeared. Nobody is really interested to change overnight. Even if people segregate, there's no way to recycle it. There's no infrastructure available. So there are multiple broken pieces of this. How do we solve this problem that's going to kill our future generations, literally? The problem is huge. We are talking about 200,000 tons of waste in India every day. People don't segregate their waste. When they don't segregate, you can't create value and hence it has to go to the landfills. We don't have any more land left. So of course it'll end up in front of your houses. And what I realized is there is no solution that's actually solving the problem which is like say a big plastic bag with food and glass and everything mixed into it. That's why it's on the streets. Day and night. That kid is dying because of respiratory cancer because the landfills are burgeoning and then they burn. And then there is leachate, thick black liquid that has already percolated into the groundwater. And residents in and around are literally having such water to drink. When people are dying already, we think that we are very far away from it. But it's not. And that's when I realized that there needs to be a solution first to sort the trash. Because the moment I do that, then the degradables could be recycled. And during that journey, the initial few months is when I met my co-founder, Saurabh. So I would see her going from her house which was about 40 kilometers from the place where she was testing the machine. She was walking for a while, taking a bus, then taking a metro, again getting down, taking a cab and reaching that place and she was doing this every single day. When I started making my small prototype I was going to the landfills and I used to go there and put waste into my machine and it was just not working. It was just not working. In fact, the machine broke down and I had exhausted all my money and I said I want to give up. This was, I think, when she was in third grade. Yeah, she was the angel. She is coming all the way from heaven to tell her the human beings in earth how horrible you people are, you are so insensitive, you don't value life, all these things. Her happy place as a stage that, I think, is her gift. She always thinks that I want to change the lives of the not few people, billions and billions of people. I want to change their lives. I want to make them better as any startups. It's not easy to get the money or support. So she has asked me, I don't have others to finance me or to tend to. So all the money which I save, these are all the money for you. How much ever you want to take it, use it for your business. What if I fail? Failing is not a problem. Go back to zero. That's a wonderful number, you know, that's zero. Because from there on everything starts. I told her, see, don't give up. You're doing a great work and it will benefit the society a lot. Frankly, I didn't have any idea about what I was saying. And she said, come on the ground and show it to me, you know. You would not be even able to stand in such a place. The following day I went there. I could see babies there in the lap of those women who were removing plastics and paper and I really felt horrified, you know. How can somebody work in this situation? When we were working in the dump sites, we could feel what the waste picker is going through. Because if we don't do this, billions of people have to do this. They have to live in waste. This is the first trashpot. This was 50 kgs an hour, 50. It never worked. It broke. It was absolutely the reverse. Wet fell in dry, dry fell in wet. I don't know what were we on. I mean, what made us think that we could crack it? Something kept us going and we could never give up on the mission. The worst part is you're nauseated, right? You want to puke but you have to think of a problem that's impossible to solve. You can think when you're in an air conditioned room or when you're in a laboratory but thinking in a dump site in a landfill where it's nauseating and figuring out solutions and not just figuring out. It's not like, hey, I got an idea and it's done. You have to fix it. You have to prototype. You have to try it there because you can't come back and try it because it's very far away, every land. No food because I don't think it's available. No where to pee, especially for me. It took us two and a half years of shooting in the dark. Our perspective or our design constraint for developing the machine was low cost, low operation, low footprint. We have to reach every nook and corner of India to every village. Our machine, if you put a waste which is unsorted we can extract the valuables which is like your wet waste which can go to composting which can go to biogas. Then we can extract the dry waste which is basically paper, plastic. And during this journey we also realised that the plastics that come out has no value. We were left with the problem what is going to happen to that. So we ended up creating another technology to take non-recyclable plastics and recycle it. We ended up recycling it into two major products. One is recycled sheets which are like plywood and recycle number which is like timber. This particular material can go to the construction industry can go to furniture making can go to various applications like that. We recycle it into plastic. We recycle it into plastic. We use plastic from the house. We use it everywhere in plastic. We all do it. We have no desk in Shalina. It is very difficult to meet people and ask them questions. How do you get the bench desk? What do you get? Desk. Desk? What is it? Plastic. We recycle it into plastic and recycle it into a box and recycle it into a box and recycle it into plastic. It is very difficult. Will that child not think twice before throwing a plastic bag? This needs to be cultivated. We need to tell them, we need to educate them show them that it is not waste to begin with. It is just waste because we have thrown it in the wrong way we have disposed it in the wrong way and we don't know what to do about it. It was not a easy journey. It was very tough for her. I thought it may not be possible by you alone but when you start you can find people coming and joining your mission. What is your plan tomorrow? Leaving at four. The flight is at eight. Eight. We need to be there. Okay, at least three hours before. Okay. Many a times that I am stuck and no door is opening I sleep with that giving up attitude but then I get up in the morning and I am like somebody has to do it and I think I can. The open innovation platform of the world at home forum which is looking to support people and planet-focused entrepreneurs you are going to meet one of them today. Without any further ado I want to introduce Nevada RM. Why am I here? Why am I thrilled about this event and why am I talking to each one of you? It's because we have a vision of preventing 25,000 tonnes of waste from entering the landfills every day. You developed the world's first completely automated trash sorting and recycling system. How can we ensure that no one gets left behind as part of the circular transition? So we wanted something that was local and creating value and employing people, right? Creating dignified employment. Now if you are going to employ manpower to do this it's not only inhuman it's impractical too. But there is a real problem. Policies globally as well as country-wise are not supportive of newer technologies taking more risk and also not supportive of circular economy in a way. We need to solve the problem right from top. You have to stop the manufacturing of those plastics. Problem is like a mountain all of us put together put all the technologies put all the activism put all the policies everything we are a small land. And if we as small ants can't be together then we don't stand a chance.