A Kanpur-based start-up regularly collects 8.4 tonnes of floral waste from temples across Uttar Pradesh to recycle and produce organic incense sticks.
The progression of humanity has led to our biggest problem of waste generation which is taking place in abundance. Karan Rastogi and Ankit Agarwal, two friends hailing from Kanpur have come up with an ingenious way to reuse wasted flowers from local temples in various ways. Ankit and Karan have founded an eco-friendly initiative called “Help Us Green” to bring greater respectability to more than 200 informal manual scavengers, especially women belonging to lower castes. Phool.co is a significant initiative under their Help Us Green campaign that aims to gather flowers left at various worshipping places as offerings, and repurpose them as biodegradable alternatives to several products. The duo came up with the plan in 2015, while they were visiting the temples on the banks of Ganga in Bithoor, Kanpur.
Unlike the pollution caused by industrial waste, flower-waste is often overlooked in the drive to clean the river waters of India. The rotting flowers in the river are not the only pollutant, the pesticides used on them can also adversely impact marine life. Ankit and Karan quit their jobs shortly after 2015 to launch their eco-friendly campaign, Help Us Green. The start-up began with an initial investment of Rs 72,000, and two months later they launched their first product, a vermicompost that they decided to call “Mitti”.
Phool.co makes use of the flower-waste collected from 29 temples in Kanpur to manufacture charcoal-free and upcycled incense sticks. The start-up is built on the backs of its 73 full-time women employees, involved in the task of flowercycling as opposed to the activities of manual scavenging. The waste-flowers are handcrafted after collection using a technology known as ‘Flowercycling’. Apart from organic incense sticks, Phool.co makes vermicompost, and the world's first non-toxic thermocol known as Florafoam. The incense sticks of Phool.co come in various fragrances like Jasmine, Eucalyptus, Nargis. Each box contains 40 incense sticks and a wooden holder for the sticks. The company also manufactures and sells incense cones. The employees who earned a meager amount of Rs 10 per day before, are now earning Rs 200 at least.
Till 2020, Phool.co has recycled more than 11,000 tonnes of flower-waste and is effectively meeting their dual objective of recycling temple waste and offering employment to the vernacular people of India.
