Every Indian household of any socio-economic background has a few things in common — used bottles, old newspapers, damaged household appliances and cardboard — that constitutes as scrap. And with Hyderabad being the fourth most populous city in India, it comes as no surprise that the city is generating a huge amount of garbage on a daily basis, which ultimately finds its way to the landfills. Sadly, only a meagre percentage of the garbage finds its way to recycling firms. This is where three brothers from Hyderabad have come to the rescue with their one-stop solution for scrap — Crapbin — a modern twist to the age-old kabadiwala system.
Elaborating on the concept, one of the founders, Nisar Ahmed says, “The concept was on our mind for quite a few years, since the time I was working in Dubai after completing my civil engineering degree from Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT). But it was only in 2018 that after a thorough research, we finally came up with Crapbin which enables a doorstep waste-collection service to households, communities and industries.”
Further, he explains, “The representatives from the company visit the households and weigh the scrap using an electronic weighing machine. They pay in cash based on the existing market rates and move the trash to the scrap yard of the company for segregation before it is sent to different companies to be recycled.”
Apart from Nisar who handles the operations, his two brothers Muquayyar Ahmed and Zuber Ahmed handle marketing and finance respectively. The trio’s twist to being the modern kabadiwala in the city started with only the three of them together and without any family support. Today, they have 20 staff working for them.
“When we started, we didn’t know that we would get such a good response but within nine months of being operational, we started catering to 67 areas with two branches — at Amberpet and Alkapur — with around 1,800 customers,” states Nisar proudly.
Working without any family support and quitting a plush job in Dubai to start something of his own in Hyderabad was not at all easy, reminisces Nisar. “Our family didn’t accept the fact that despite being well educated, we were working as a ‘kabadiwala’. We also faced a lack of manpower as not many educated people want to come into this profession. But we want to cover as much area in Hyderabad as possible,” he states.
As for the road ahead for themselves and Crapbin, Nisar adds, “We want to cover the entire length and breadth of Hyderabad soon. We are planning to set up our third branch in Moula Ali. Apart from that, we are also researching on how to maximise the recycle chain from regular kitchen waste,” he says, signing off.
