When India's Covid-19 paper mill went out of business, Seetharaman Basavanahalli, a former handmade paper mill owner, decided to do something about it.
"I always wanted the innovation to be indigenous andquintessentially Indian," he tells the Times of India.
So Basavanahalli teamed up with two other peoplesocial entrepreneur Vinay Kumar and green chemical expert Rajeev Kumarto create Indic Initiatives, a venture that has developed an automatic paper recycling machine that can recycle up to 200 pounds of waste paper per day, reports the Indian Express.
They've also developed a micro machine that can recycle up to 500 pounds of waste paper per day.
"The problem of paper waste disposal has to be controlled right at the source," says Basavanahalli.
"We are now piloting two machines in the marketone for recycling waste paper like tissue paper, paper cups, and tetra packs into pulp," he adds.
"Another machine upcycles agro fiber like banana, jute, pineapple, and cotton into pulp."
The idea is to set up small recycling machines at the source of waste paper, and to install them at commercial and corporate offices, among other places.
"I had been in touch with Seetharaman, a scientist
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