I guess my goal to reduce the burden on our earth was far more strong. I never lost sight of that.

Four years of R&D efforts bore fruit as Alok developed bricks, adhesives and plasters from construction rubbish

- Namita Shibad

PUNE: While all factories in the country chug along smoothly manufacturing various products, adding to our gross domestic product (GDP), the fallout of this growth is the industrial waste that is generated. According to sciencedirect.com, we produce more than 10 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of industrial waste every year and almost 100% of that is dumped into our landfills. Not a very pretty picture, this.

Alok Kale had an idea of industrial waste as his family runs an auto component manufacturing business. Alok was not completely aware of its enormity until he went to work with different auto companies across the world that he realised the magnitude of the problem.

"I realised that every industry as a part of its manufacturing process generates some amount of waste. Foundries use huge amounts of silica sand for their manufacturing, and since this sand loses its bonding capacity, it is rendered useless. This sand is then disposed of as per the government mandate most often in landfills," Alok said. He now had an in-depth understanding of the problem.