BENGALURU — In 2016, when fires engulfed India’s oldest and largest garbage dumping ground in Deonar, Mumbai, NASA released satellite images of the fumes shooting up into the sky. The fire, which raged for days, brought the city’s and the country’s indiscriminate waste disposal methods to light — and turned out to be the tipping point that Rahul Nainani and Gurashish Singh Sahni needed to step into the world of waste management.
“This disaster led us to survey Shivaji Nagar, a slum bordering the dumpsite, where we discovered that the average life expectancy of residents was just 39 years,” ReCircle CEO Nainani said. “That moment was an eye-opener. Nearly a decade later, the waste crisis has only worsened, no longer affecting just those living near landfills but all of us.”
