Creating a Better Future Using Flower Waste
Developing self-sustainable local Entrepreneurs out of effective upcycling of floral waste
Introduction
For a country that believes in the Principles of Active Secularism, promoting every religion, it is quite normal to have flower waste. India is a land of flowers and they are extensively used in religious ceremonies and weddings. The resulting floral waste accounts for nearly one-third of the total solid waste accumulated in the country. These flowers are one reason behind the water pollution in our country, which is now a growing concern.
Ganga has always been a symbol of faith, hope, culture and sanity. The extraordinary faith and respect for the River Ganga in India are as old as Indian culture itself. Every year 80,00,000 metric tonnes of waste flowers are dumped into the river Ganga. Floral waste, reportedly, accounts for 16% of the total river pollutant. While rotting flowers affect the water quality, the pesticides used on them leach into the waters and harm marine life.
We at Enactus IITR decided to come up with an idea to shift this suboptimal equilibrium to a more balanced one. We discussed, debated, and finally decided to start the Project Ark, which aimed to upcycle flower waste and create a circular economy in the floral industry. Our solution is to develop marketable products like incense sticks from this floral waste to nudge the equilibrium in the right direction. So now the new cycle begins with the devotees bringing flowers to the temple, which are then use to make incense sticks to be used by the devotees again, creating a circular environment for the safe disposal of the floral waste.
I was a part of Project ARK, which started in my first year. The process of making the product from scratch ignited the entrepreneurial spirit inside me. The whole process of Ideation, implementation, product development, marketing, and whatnot expanded my knowledge horizon. The experience that I gained is worth sharing, so without any further ado, let’s get started.
Problem Identification ❔
- Generation of around 800 million tonnes of floral waste annually
- Dumping the waste into water bodies like Ganges results in a considerable amount of pollution
- The harm caused to aquatic organisms due to algae growth is promoted by pollution
- Unemployment of around 60% women in a typical Indian village
- Creation of a vicious cycle resulting in the conversion of a productive segment of the population to a liability
Proposed Solutions ✨
After doing extensive research on what all products can be made using flower waste collected from temples and dargah.
- Vermicompost obtained by flower waste is rich in sodium, potassium and phosphorus which is essential for plant growth and low electrical conductivity, higher reduction of total organic carbon, increase rate of total nitrogen, less C:N ratio, higher germination index and low CO2 evolution shows the maturity and stability of vermicompost.
- Biodegradable Thermocols can be made from flower waste by chemically processing it and then moulding it into thermocols, which are cheaper, eco-friendly, durable than conventional ones.
- An Ayurvedic medicine using traditional Indian recipe having many health benefits — Gulkand is a powerful antioxidant and an excellent rejuvenator. It improves appetite and digestion and has a cooling effect on the body, which helps combat fatigue, lethargy, muscular aches, itching, and heat-related conditions.
- Incense sticks and incense cones- Indian Agarbatti and dhoop market size was more than INR 3000 crores in 2011–12. It has massive potential for charcoal-free, sulphur-free, organic incense sticks using flower waste. One may also add ayurvedic herbs to add therapeutic benefits to it.
- Using discarded flowers as a source for essential oil extraction to
reduce the addition of waste and promote flower re-usage. - Mosquito repellents- Using citronella oil which can be extracted from lemongrass, and adding this ingredient in the composition of Incense sticks.
Ideation 💡
After a thorough survey over the campus and the worship places in Roorkee, it was observed that there is a massive plant and flower waste, amounting to several kilograms per day, with nearly no productive utilisation. Sensing the immense scope in the field and after conducting immense research over the applications, hours were taken to ponder over the efficient collection of the utilisable floral and agro-waste and channelise it into some profitable applications.
In our venture to upcycle floral waste, we planned to fabricate various plausible products, such as mosquito repellants, perfumes, etc. The first one that we’ve decided to come up with is floral incense sticks. We planned on marketing these incense sticks under the brand ‘ARK’. Our product is hand-rolled by rural women, using the waste temple flowers and conveniently feasible other raw materials, and manifests a relatively more burning time with low carbon emissions. Starting right from the ideation, going through research and development, prototyping, to product improvement, manufacturing, and then the branding and marketing phases, each one of our steps forward has been following a sequence of the processes which are required to initiate or run a new business. Not only do we strive to create a marking environmental impact through our venture, but we also aim to generate a sustainable economic system and a constant source of revenue through our products.
While trying to find a channel to implement our Project, we encountered another issue that has persisted in our society for a long time, hindering our path to meaningful progress, the discrimination against women. This led us to create women communities at Anushruti and Piran Kaliyar Dargah.
ARK- The Essence of Nature
ARK has been a promising venture embarked upon the journey of targeting significant loads of untreated floral waste and preventing its dumping and polluting the aquatic systems. ARK aims to upcycle floral waste to make valuable consumer goods, the first one being the ARK Incense Sticks. We started off in collaboration with five women from Bellady, a village on the outskirts of Roorkee.
ARK incense sticks are processed from the flowers collected from dargahs and various temples around Roorkee. For the procurement of flower waste from dargah, we got the permission from Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Roorkee. Currently, we work on three decentralised models, which I’ll explain in detail later. After the collection, the Team worked over the prototyping of the incense stick, having intensive phases of R&D coupled with extensive research which finalised the composition for our product. We trained the women of a nearby village Bellady to manufacture the agarbattis by themselves. We aim to empower women through ARK by making them financially independent and turning them into self-sustaining local entrepreneurs. After a month of employing the women, the Team then worked over the marketing of the agarbattis.
Mission: To create a circular economy in the floral industry where all waste is upcycled into a usable product while creating jobs
Vision: Creating an environmentally friendly and socially improved society by reducing pollution with the creation of local entrepreneurs
Product Development 📦
After drying up the flowers, we converted them into a powder form. We mixed it with Jigat powder, sawdust and a minimum amount of charcoal in a fixed proportion to form a dough. Now this dough is put on the sticks are then hand-rolled. After drying up the incense, they are dipped into essence oil to get the fragrance. This may sound simple to do, but it requires extensive research and development and several trial runs when it comes to making a quality product. It took us around five months to get to the final composition and method to manufacture the incense stick.
The result of the CHNS test showed that Ark incense is less polluting than any conventional incense sticks made from charcoal. Moreover, the proximity of Roorkee to Hardiwar and Rishikesh provided us with a promising market opportunity. We believe we are not selling a product rather endorsing a vision, a promise for a better future, a cleaner world, and a sustainable example for generations to follow.
Starting with the ideation, R&D and prototyping phases of the flower bulk collected from the dargah of Piran Kaliyar Sharif, we moved on to impart the required skills to the women. We trained five women from the village Bellady near Roorkee for manufacturing the incense sticks. The first batch of about 100 packets of incense sticks couldn’t be marketed, the reason being the inconsistency of the product.
For the purpose of Product development, we did a pilot run of our product in the campus itself. We gave ARK incense sticks to our professors at IIT Roorkee and asked them to fill a feedback form after using the product. Our pilot run received mixed responses. We worked on the shortcoming and further developed it into a best in class product.
Market Research 📈
- 200 players, 400 brands
- The top 5 players account for a market share of 20%
- Recently, the industry has witnessed an immense rise from Rs 798 crore in 2015 to Rs 965 crore in FYI 2018
Ark targets the following market divisions:
- High and middle-income households
- Groups and organizations working for environmental or social causes
- High-end Ashrams and temples near Haridwar Rishikesh zone
In the market research, the Team visited the distributor based in Haridwar, where we had gone to show him our initial product. He also guided the Team on the different aspects of incense sticks production.
After this, we moved to the local area of Haridwar to understand the basic purchase criteria of people, visiting shops mostly near Har Ki Pauri, the region accounting for a large number of sales of incense sticks and where dominant customers are middle class and poor. This helped us in knowing about market trends of organic and chemical incense sticks and understanding price variations.
Decentralised Models of ARK
Bellady Model 🏕️
We trained the women of a nearby village Bellady to manufacture agarbattis by themselves. After a month of employing the women, the team then worked over the marketing of the agarbattis and with successful efforts, we got online distributors and started distributing wages among these women.
Anushruti Model 🏫
Anushurti is a school for differently-abled children inside the IIT campus. Mothers accompany their wards during school hours as they require a guardian’s supervision in their daily lives. When we contacted the Principal of Anushurti, she told us that these women are eager to learn any skill that could help them earn money as they come from homes with modest means and also have a lot of time at their hands while at school. So, we came up with the idea to teach these women to make incense sticks.
We trained them through regular workshops and provided all the raw materials. Our efforts yielded results soon, and at present, we have over 15 women from Anushurti working with us who earn around ₹2000 per month through the sale of self-made incense sticks in the markets of Rishikesh and Haridwar.
Dargah Model 🕌
Kaliyar Piran Dargah, located 5 km from Roorkee, generates around 40 to 50 kg of floral waste daily, which was earlier disposed of in the Ganga Canal. At present, we at Team Ark procure these flowers before their disposal. As the Dargah area has an unmarried women community, a regular flower waste supply, and an excellent market for incense, we thought creating a self-sustainable circular economy in this area would be profitable and convenient.
We came in touch with a local NGO, The Spinal Of Youth, working in the field of child education and women empowerment. The NGO introduced us to the women in the area who wanted to participate in this initiative. With time and a positive impact in the area, we were able to convince the shopkeepers about the growth they would witness if they partnered with us. We have successfully created a self-sustainable model in the Kaliyar Dargah and continuously monitoring the progress.
Branding & Marketing 💸
The idea was to show the constant upcycling of temple flowers into incense sticks which are in turn used for devotion again.
Designers took inspiration from Hindu Mythology that talks about human reincarnation. It follows the idea that the soul is indestructible and repeatedly takes on a physical body.
Our team tried to show the process of reincarnation from a temple flower to incense sticks. The soul of the flower is very spiritual and devotional. People have offered these flowers with a lot of faith.
The Packet design on the left side was taken as a basic structure based on which different packet designs were ideated. Later this basic structure got changed a little due to change in the business model.
Initially, the box of ARK had a graphical representation of a temple and flowers on it, which signifies that flowers are offered at a temple as a part of worship.
Along with the development of the product, the design team also worked parallelly on the packet design. They added an element of women hand holding incense sticks depicting that these incense sticks are hand-rolled by the women community and thus conveying the social impact associated with our Project. As our Project is catering for both temples and dargah, we withdrew the temple sketch from the packet to make it religion-neutral.
Unique selling points are mentioned on the backside of the packet:
- Made from waste flowers
- Hand-rolled by rural women
- Minimum Charcoal, 100% Sulphur free
- Burn 1.5x more than conventional sticks
Badging of Enactus IIT Roorkee is there with a QR code through which one can go through the whole story behind this initiative. Packets that are to be marketed in dargah has the logo of NGO, The Spinal of Youth as our partner.
After designing Packets for Agarbattis, in February 2019, we started looking for packets printers and got it done by the end of the month.
Marketing Strategies 🛣️
- Built a distribution channel, going through wholesalers and trying to tie up with big retail chains and Institutional buyers (Hotels, Ashrams, etc.)
- Embracing user feedback/review, customers share personal stories and exchange ideas.
- Collaborating with the blogs and online websites that sell Organic and Herbal Products (which align with the idea of Ark) like organicindia.com, naturalmantra.com, etc.
- Storytelling is one of the most effective methods of marketing. Promoting our product story through blogs, social media pages promoting environment-friendly products.
- Collaborating with NGOs for mutual benefits.
- Interested in the eco-friendly Ark incense sticks with a sustainable production cycle Earthly Tribe, a Delhi based organic e-commerce startup, approached our team for collaboration.
Target Audience 🎯
To portion out the available resources optimally, including time, money, and organisational efforts, the Team emphasised on the target audience analysis from the very beginning of the Project. We conducted several thorough surveys while dividing the existing customer base of the incense stick market into three parts: the high-end market, the middle segment, and the low-end market.
Since the manufacturing cost of our initial product was marginally above that of the middle segment, we stressed particularly more on the same. From our assessment relevant to the questions pertaining to the usual incense stick market scenario and acknowledging the socio-environmental impact, we concluded that the audience would buy our product at a marginally higher price. If they could be impressed by the product quality and the stimulating story behind it, they will indeed be attracted towards our product. The junta appeared to be better aware and pro-environment than ever before. Therefore, the people using middle-range incense sticks at homes and at business places, for the purpose of prayer and scent, form the bulk of our target audience. Moreover, our marketing strategies undeniably played a decisive role in the extent of our market penetration.
Product Launch 🎀
We successfully launched ARK premium incense sticks in Srishti, the Annual Technical Exhibition of IIT Roorkee, on 9th March 2019, in the presence of Director, IIT Roorkee
The Team exhibited their project in front of various guests, professors and students. The product launch was a huge success to Enactus, IIT Roorkee.
Impact 🚀
Empowering Communities 🤝🏽
We have trained and collaborated with various women communities to manufacture these incense sticks commercially, thereby acting as a catalyst in their social and financial empowerment. We have tried educating these women about the impact that they are creating with each box of incense they manufacture, extricating the environment of the humongous loads of floral wastes and upcycling them productively to generate revenue. We have also planned to equip these women with some essential soft skills through regular awareness and education programs that they will require for ensuring the proper functioning of the economic cycle of the incense sticks on their own, without assistance from us.
We’ve brought confidence in the lives of mothers of children from special school who now have an identity of their own beyond their families and children. Moreover, we plan to make aware more such women and encouraging them into joining the initiative, following in the steps of their counterparts, thus scaling up the business and magnifying the impact they create.
Impact on Planet 🌏
To reduce the organic waste dumped in the aquatic system and positively impact life underwater, we wish to reduce the pollution levels in the water bodies and work on a cleaner and better environment for the generations to come.
Scalability & Sustainability
- Created a shared network of distributors, wholesalers and retailers covering a wide range of Tier-1, Tier-2, Tier-3 cities for our product.
- We also plan to replicate the Kaliyar Dargah model across various cities of India, starting with Akshardham in Delhi as the basic three components of this model, floral waste, a workforce and a market for incense, are bound to exist near any place of worship.
- Availed prior permission from the concerned authorities to ensure a continuous supply of flowers from the dargah and temples.
- Established a steady supply chain to ensure a continuous and adequate supply of raw materials in bulk.
Special mention: Ms Disha Bhatia (Project Head), who led Project ARK. Under her painstaking guidance, this all was made possible. Even in the most excruciating times, she never let the team down. From taking follow-ups, holding meetings to giving nicknames to all the team members 😂 and preparing us for B-plan Competitions, she did it all. Thank you for being such a great mentor.
Thank you for taking the time to go through the entire Project. Any suggestions or constructive criticisms are most welcome. If you feel I missed something, let me know.
I still feel there is a lot more to cover, and I only gave a glimpse of what we did. If you want to know more, contact me on LinkedIn.
We are a group of people who aim to improve the world through our actions. We aspire to make the world a better place through Sustainable Development of communities and societies. As a social enterprise, we strive to create an environment friendly and socially improved society through the reduction of pollution and simultaneous creation of self-sustainable local entrepreneurs
