Hyderabad: Trash to fuel ‘Refuel with Recykal’ drive

Hyderabad: Now Hyderabadis can avail one millilitre of petrol in exchange for their trash!

In a mission to create a greener and healthier environment, the city-based startup Recykal, in collaboration with the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, has come up with an initiative Refuel with Recykal.

The main aim of the initiative is instead of throwing trash into landfills if we can bring back it to the circular economy then the burden on the environment will be lower.

A senior officer of Recykal, said, “We have seen that what all not in use are always thrown away; it is either seen lying on the corner of the road or floating on water bodies, which is harmful to the environment. So for the environmental cause, in collaboration with the IOC Ltd, we have come up with an initiative--in exchange of trash--people can give plastic waste, paper, cardboard, mobiles, laptops, network equipment, cables, and other materials to designated Indian Oil fuel stations and receive credits in return’.

‘The credits can be used to pay for fuel at particular fuel stations. Each credit earned is equivalent to one millilitre of fuel. People who contribute more than 10 kg waste are eligible for additional fuel exclusively.”

‘As a pilot project, we have tied up with five fuel stations in west- north part of the city, including Hitech City – opposite Lemon Tree; TSIIC, Knowledge City, near IKEA; COCO, Jubilee Hills, Road No.36; Cyber Filling Station, near Miyapur; and COCO, Begumpet, Prakashnagar, Begumpet Road.

The initiative was started on June 5; till date, daily around 80-120 kg trash is being collected across the five petrol bunks. After collecting trash, it has been transported to the recycling centre so the material can re-used for manufacturing new things, she added.

Abhay Deshpande, founder-CEO of Recykal, said, “the objective of this initiative goes beyond just curbing waste pollution. This collaboration is not only aimed at preventing waste from entering the environment, but also at creating social entrepreneurship and more green jobs for women and specially abled people. The project has the potential to collect 2.6 million tonnes of uncontaminated dry waste annually directly from source, creating a minimum of 16,000 direct and 64,000 indirect green jobs at the same time.