In certain parts of Chennai, “scrap shops” have. a way of popping up at recyclable drives conducted at apartments. These units mirror the local scrap shop across the street, the scrap dealer arriving with a tricycle in tow., But these shops have the longevity of adult mayflies, in fact shorter still, but the impact they have on the circular economy is far-reaching. They train residents to develop the habit of sorting out recyclables, as the money they receive incentivises the practice.
Waste management company Kabadiwalla Connect has been promoting this model for a year and half, and has started extending it ti the Chennai coast, working these shops into how beach clean-ups are planned and executed.
The beginnings
“We have done quite a number of pop up scrap shops in the Mylapore region; we have done almost over 100 pop-up collection events with neighbourhood associations. We have associated with Ganga Sridhar (a resident of Mandaveli Raja Street) in many of these events,” says Siddharth Hande, founder and CEO of Kabadiwalla Connect. “Basically the idea here is that on a Saturday morning, we get the scrap shop to come to an apartment and set up shop there, temporary shop. Over those two hours, people from the apartment, but now also more and more from that neighbourhood go and sell their recyclables to the scrap shop.”
