North, south, east, or west across the globe, we can no longer ignore a massive ecological problem that is staring us in the face––biodegradable and food waste.

While 828 million people go hungry each year, and a child dies from hunger every thirteen seconds (source: welthungerhilfe.org), more than 30% of food is wasted or lost globally each year, from agricultural production to landfill (source-greenly.earth).

According to World Bank Report, annually, we as a global civilization generate 2.01 billion metric tonnes of municipal solid (or biodegradable) waste. The report even predicts that by 2050, global municipal waste generation will reach a staggering level of 70% or 3.4 billion metric tonnes. And out of the nine biggest dumping sites across the world, two (Delhi Landfills-500 acres and Deonar, Mumbai-326 acres) are in India. When waste management and disposal is an urgent need––unless we wish to end up in a global landfill or dump––less than 20% of waste is recycled or disposed of.

What is more? There was no technology available to provide any substantial solution in this regard before Solwearth Ecotech came to humankind’s rescue with its uniquely innovative global waste management solutions.

The Making of a Revolution

Committed to the concept of sustainable development Solwarth Ecotech has developed a Waste Management Machine through in-house R&D which caters to the waste management needs of customers having the challenge of disposing of food and organic waste with an eco-friendly output.

Along with it being plug-and-play the most unique features of SE Food Waste Converters are

• Minimum space, power, and labor requirement.
• Easy installation and maintenance.
• Fully automatic one-touch control.
• Processing time with less than 24 hours.
• No emissions, smoke, or odour.
• No Bacteria, Additives, or Water required.

Conceived by two young, responsible, and professional-minded innovators Haroon S, Founder, and Chairman, and Aravind P S, Founder, and Director, from Kerala, Solwearth Ecotech has embarked upon this noblest mission of global waste management for us. Haroon informs, “We have started in 2017.”

He and Aravind were childhood friends who played and studied together before embarking on their respective professional paths. Around eight years ago, Aravind and Haroon met at an alumni gathering wherein they shared a common desire to do something for society that would have a significant beneficial influence.

As CSR activities, they decided to assist and find a solution in waste management in the community they reside in and began looking into options for effective waste management technologies. But to their surprise, no major technology existed elsewhere in the globe to efficiently manage waste. They reasoned that if no technology is available elsewhere in the world, why not give it a shot?

That’s when the affiliation seed of Solwearth Ecotech was sown with the intent of giving back to society in the meantime, it provided them a fantastic business opportunity as well. It took them nearly a year to conduct market research all across the world and determine that the main issue was biodegradable waste.

They formed proficient R&D, engineering, and market research teams to build a product. It required another 18 months to come up with the prototype, followed by a year of testing in various regions of the country under varied climatic weather conditions and so on before the final product was released. Essentially, it took over three and a half years of hard work and investment before they actually could launch the product in the market.

As per Haroon and Aravind’s extensive research, food waste, regardless of scale, is a worldwide issue with financial, environmental, legal, and health implications. More food is produced and wasted as the global population grows and urbanization expands, with serious environmental and public-health repercussions, particularly in urban areas. Cities around the world are expressing a need for help with food waste as one of the largest environmental problems they face.

This is where Solwearth Ecotech comes in, specializing in the food waste management system. Solwearth Ecotech has set standards while revolutionizing the industry with its innovative product that can address food waste management needs in various industrial verticals.

Mission Clean World

Telling more about their offerings and aspects that make them stand out, Haroon informs that there are numerous methods for managing biodegradable waste, wherein composting is considered as the most popular one. Composting is a good method of recycling food waste back to nature where it may take anywhere between 30 days to six months. He states, “But when it comes to urban areas comprising 5-star hotels, apartments, or villa complexes, composting is infeasible.” Solwearth Ecotech, backed by a proficient team of engineers developed a waste disposal product that can convert 90% of the input volume in just 24 hours and only gives back 10% which is a good soil supplement for the garden.

Solwearth Ecotech offers a range of products that are available in a variety of capacities varying from 50KG-1000KG to meet the needs of various 5-star hotels, educational institutions, residential apartments, complexes, hospitals, and other industries. “Ours is the only company in India that offers plug-and-play food waste management solutions that convert food waste into the soil in less than 24 hours with no hazardous gas emissions,” claims Aravind.

SE food waste converter is an automated on-site compostable waste processing system. Haroon informs, “We use multi-stage indirect heat and dry decomposition process in our machines.” The system is equipped with water recycling technology that uses the condensate run out to control the humidity in the processing chamber, which in turn translates to faster processing speeds.

Aravind also mentions that they are impanelled by National Seeds Corporations, Gov. of India under the Swatch Bharat mission in the Decentralized Composed machine (MISCA) category.

The SE Food Waste Converter does not require ANY additional products such as wood chips, chemicals, or charcoal to be added to the waste. It also consumes NO fresh water and does not discharge any ‘dirty water’ to sanitary. As mentioned, the only discharge from the unit is the ‘Sterile Biomass’ and a few gallons of condensate runoff from the condenser unit.

While Haroon adds that are impanelled by Suchitwa Mission, Gov. of Kerala under Solid Waste Management Devices for processing Organic Solid Waste.

Ushering into a Green Future

Being experienced leaders and sharing their opinion on how the adoption of modern technologies like AI and ML is impacting the industry and how Solwearth is adapting to the change, Haroon says that modern technologies like AI and ML are transforming the industry. He adds, “At the start, we didn’t have too much data on the Waste Management side, but now a huge amount of data is available.”

While Aravind says, “With the advents of new technologies, analysis of these data helps us understand, how the industry is moving. By using this refined data, we can plan our product innovations and solutions.”

Considering the current industry scenario, Haroon says that there are some unique challenges they have to face and overcome. The waste management industry itself is new and it still evolving. Because of that, regulations across the world are different. Since it is still in the exploring phase, people are still toying with different technologies and trials. Knowledge levels in this industry are also evolving over period of time. “Because of this, there is a huge lack of manpower with this expertise and knowledge,” conveys Aravind.

In their advice to budding entrepreneurs aspiring to venture into this sector, Haroon and Aravind have some pragmatic advice that they like to share. Haroon says, “Food Waste Management is one of the major ecological issues faced by the world. This problem needs to address quickly for the survival of human beings.”

Aravind furthers, “So, it’s important that new entrepreneurs come into place to solve the problem very quickly and it will help to spread the awareness all over the world. Also, the opportunities are very big and the industry is in its early stage, which gives a big scope for growth.”

On envisioning scaling their firm’s operations and offerings in the future, Aravind reveals that currently, Solwearth Ecotech is present in ten states in India as well as operational on the international front. And as it forges ahead to reach new heights, the firm is planning to expand its production facility to accommodate greater waste handling capability.

“Further, we are looking forward to being active across the nation as well as in Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa by the end of the year, along with its long-term goals aligned to expand globally,” concludes Haroon.