Two Kanpur Friends Are Recycling Flower Waste From Temples Into World's 1st Non-Toxic Thermocol

Ankit Agarwal and Karan Rastogi, both hailing from Kanpur, have been friends since childhood. That¡¯s because the two have found a way to reuse waste flowers from local temples in various ways.

Images courtesy: Phool

The two are founders of an eco-friendly initiative they call HelpUsGreen. Their main goal, one that has brought them both fame and profit, is to gather flowers left at temples as offerings and after celebrations, and re-purpose them as biodegradable alternatives to various products. They make organic incense, vermicompost and, most importantly, the world¡¯s first non-toxic thermocol called Florafoam.

Ankit told CNBC TV18 he got the idea for the initiative in 2015, when his Czech friend came to visit him in Kanpur. It was Makar Sakranti at the time, so the two watched devotees gather around the banks of the Ganga to dip into the river, collect the water in containers, and even drink deep right there. Ankit¡¯s friend however was worried about how sanitary that was, given that devotees were also releasing flowers into the river as offerings, and trucks were offloading waste flowers from nearby temples on the banks.

The thought of possibly cleaning up all those flowers is what gave Ankit an idea, one he had to share with Karan. After seven months of R&D, they came up with their vermicompost recipe, after which they moved on to turning the flowers into incense sticks. It was much longer before they began manufacturing Florafoam, but the two aren¡¯t done yet. Now, they also say they¡¯re researching to to turn the flowers into bioleathers.

When they realised they had a good startup idea all those years ago, the two actually quit their corporate jobs to pursue it full time, though not without resistance from their families. But with combined savings of Rs 72,000, and a few tonnes of flowers each day from bemused temple volunteers, the two got to work. Now, they own a production facility in Kanpur, which processes close to 5 tonnes of flowers each day from 39 temples around the city.

The two are just starting to market their Florafoam product, under the new brand name Phool, and say they already have potential clients lined up. While they¡¯ve been focusing on selling to businesses, they¡¯re now shifting towards consumer-focused sales, and expect revenues of upto Rs 8 crore in total this Diwali alone.

Their initiative hasn¡¯t gone unnoticed either. The two are reportedly expected to present their idea at the UN General Assembly soon, and have even been nominated for a UNICEF award this month by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Eventually, they hope to spread their operations to three other locations in Varanasi, Mathura and Vrindavan as well.