Sudha Singh has a quite unique role to play in Noida societies. She sets up a small camp at an apartment, where residents can give her all the waste paper lying in their house, and in return, she gives them beautiful potted plants. And this she does full time.
What made this resident of Gaur Grandeur Apartments, Sector 119, quit her 10-year-long successful career as a hotelier and take this up?
A sense of responsibility, she says.
After her diploma from International Institute of Hotel Management, Kolkata, Singh started her career as an assistant facility manager in the hospitality sector and rose through the ranks to become senior quality and training manager. She completed her post-graduate diploma in Human Resource Management from Institute of Management and Technology, Ghaziabad.
Her decision to quit came when she recognised that instead of blaming the government for poor waste management, she could make a difference herself. She was aware of the challenges, but she had a solution. And she dubbed it Wasteroots (OPC) Pvt Ltd.
Singh, as founding director of Wasteroots, started organising monthly camps in societies, where residents were free to come and dump their old newspapers, books and notebooks, and take home potted plants. So convenient did residents find it and so popular did this become that people started thronging her camps with bundles of old paper and exchanged them for flowering plants such as petunia, guldaudi, salvia and dianthus, and non-flowering plants such as green dracaena, jade, syngonium, schefflera, snake plant, spider plant, lady green antara and tulsi. There are also herbal ones such as aloe vera.
The weight of the bundle of paper needs to be at least 7 kg for an exchange to happen. So far, she has organised camps at Eldeco Amantra in Sector 119, Noida, Indian Oil Apartments in Sector 55 and her own society.
But that's just three societies, you must be thinking. Well, there is another way to get these lovely plants from her. All you need to do is text her and express your interest in exchanging trash for her plants and a Wasteroots employee will soon visit you with a variety of plants. If you alreday have a plant in mind, all you need to do is let them know and the plant will be delivered to you soon — in exchange for a stack of paper. All plants delivered by Wasteroots are 7 inches high, keeping in mind their placement inside your home, and procured from nurseries Singh has tied up with.
According to Singh, despite pollution being a concern, only 40 per cent to 45 per cent of old paper is recycled. Since she started Wasteroots in August 2016, she now contributes two to three tonnes of paper for recycling every month.
Mukesh Singh, her husband, who is a techie by profession, has supported her throughout her journey. Her idea has been welcomed by residents and nature lovers. In less than a year, Singh has a handful of regular customers.
Kiran Saxena, an engineer who stays in Gaur Grandeur Apartments, said she loved the concept of plants in exchange for waste. She also said it was convenient, as the Wasteroots camp also offered manure.
Amit Garg, an IT professional who also stays in Gaur Grandeur Apartments, said his balcony is filled with haze and flower plants. "I recently got three by exchanging 90 kg of waste paper," he said. "Although I could have got Rs 100 for every 10 kg of paper sold, I think it's a better idea to exchange them for plants, as they bring a lot of positive energy into your home."
We think so too, Amit.
