In India, startups are looking to create products that use farmers’ crop residues to reduce air pollution from agro-waste burning. Up to 20 million tons of waste straw is burnt in North India, contributing to air quality issues in cities like Delhi.
BIO-LUTIONS India in Ramanagara buys this waste from farmers to produce biodegradable packaging and tableware. “In India, at present, we are producing tableware that is going through a distribution line, plus we are in talks with a couple of cafe chains for using our tableware instead of plastic or plastic laminated paper plates that are currently being used,” Kurian Mathew, CEO, tells scroll.in. “The quantity of raw material being used per year by us is 2,000 to 2,500 tonnes.”
Kriya Labs aims to convert 15-20 million tonnes of crop stubble from rice straw annually into pulp that can be used to make paper, ethanol, fabrics, and specialty chemicals like cellulose acetate.
“We plan to help mid-income farmers with income capacity, to set up a pulp manufacturing unit,” Ankur Kumar, CEO of Kriya Labs says. “They can use their own straw and buy straw from small farmers who cannot install a pulp manufacturing unit. A small farmer can be paid Rs. 5000 per acre, to collect and supply the straw, adequately compensating him by providing a source of income and thus removing the lack of infrastructure in collection.”
Finally, Punjab’s Farm2Energy helps farmers by baling the stubble from fields, which it then supplies to biobased industries.