From Waste to Décor: Recycling Crop Waste into Pulp and Board

From being a major political and environmental issue, to becoming a characteristic of Indian winters: stubble burning and the subsequent pollution it causes has been a matter of concern since the last decade.In this article, Dr Rina Mukherji talks about CRASTE-a start-up with the potential to solve this issue. By recycling crop waste, CRASTE helps the farmers better deal with the same, as well as creates employment opportunities in India's rural areas.

- Dr Rina Mukherji

Stubble burning has been posing a major problem in India, especially around the Delhi- National Capital Region (NCR) during the winter months. It is not as if farmers do not burn stubble following their harvests. But in the winter months, following the major winter harvest around January, the heavy winter fog causes the smoke to settle in. Owing to the winds from Haryana, Punjab and Western Uttar Pradesh areas blowing into Delhi, smoke from stubble burning in the adjoining agriculturally-rich region wreaks havoc on the air in Delhi-NCR. This, combined with vehicular pollution, has been known to produce a noxious cocktail that has played with public health and human lives-especially that of the children and the elderly.