Innovative machine turns paper waste into sustainable products | Fusion - WeRIndia

Amid the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, BG Seetharaman, Founder of BG Boutique Paper Mills, envisioned a solution to tackle waste at its source.

His idea led to an innovative machine that recycles difficult-to-process paper and fibrous agricultural waste.

In July 2022, he partnered with Vinay Kumar and Rajeeva Deekshit, to launch Indic Initiatives. While Vinay Kumar is a social entrepreneur, Rajeeva Deekshit is a green chemical expert.

Together, they developed a unique waste paper recycling machine to reduce landfill waste.

The innovative machine addresses two critical waste sources: contaminated paper and agricultural residue.

According to estimates, India produces 30,000 tonnes of unrecyclable paper each year, while about 87 million tonnes of crop residue are burned annually.

The machine developed by Indic Initiatives efficiently recycles hard-to-process materials such as paper cups, tissue paper, label release paper, and tetrapaks.

Seetharaman’s machine operates through a three-stage process that separates paper into plastic, aluminium, and pulp.

For tetrapaks, the machine uses a chemical suspension to separate the components, allowing each to be recycled.

The result is clean pulp boards, which can be used for making paper and moulded products. The separated plastic and aluminium are also sent to recyclers.

Indic Initiatives is incubated at NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore and IIMV FIELD, IIM Visakhapatnam. In addition, the startup plans to patent its unique design and process.

This end-to-end solution is a significant step toward sustainability, providing an effective way to recycle materials often deemed unsuitable for traditional recycling methods.

Seetharaman’s experience in the paper industry helped shape this innovation.

Seetharaman is a mechanical engineer from BITS Pilani. Besides, he has previous experience building a semi-automatic machine in 2014.

The machine was built to process waste paper from materials like jute, leather, and banana fibre. However, the cost of production was high, and the business faced challenges during the pandemic lockdown.

This led Seetharaman to rethink his approach and develop a more comprehensive machine that could recycle waste efficiently at the source.

Indic Initiatives is focusing on converting waste into reusable materials. Thus it intends to offer a promising approach to reducing environmental impact.

At the same time, it also wants to promote sustainable manufacturing and minimize the waste that enters landfills.

Image Credit: Indicinitiatives Website Screenshot

Image Reference: https://indicinitiatives.com/