This DU Commerce Grad Makes Sustainable Products With His Engineer Brother By Recycling Cigarette Butts; Meet The Guptas

Cigarettes are not only injurious to health, but they also affect our environment. The filter inside a cigarette butt is made out of plastic and it contains 95% plastic (cellulose acetate) and takes 12 years to decompose. While the smoke harms the lungs of smokers, cigarette butts put a lot of pressure on our ecosystem and biodiversity and make the crisis we are facing even graver.

Finding a way around this problem requires innovative solutions, and a DU-commerce grad has come up with one. Naman Gupta, now a budding entrepreneur, turns cigarette butts into usable products.

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He, along with his brother Vipul Gupta, is building an enterprise called ‘Code Effort’ that ‘upcycles’ cigarette butts and turns them into different items which include, home decor, soft toys, accessories, artifacts, buttons, sculptures, mosquito repellants, and even compost powder.

An Idea That Began In College

Naman Gupta completed his B.Com in Accounting and Finance from Delhi University between 2013 to 2016. The fact that cigarette butts are just thrown away and nothing ever is done about it made Gupta research more on the topic.

“During my college years, my friends used to smoke, and I noticed that they used to stub out their cigarettes in public places, in random ashtrays or trash bins. I then tried to know about cigarette waste and its impact on the environment," Naman Gupta said.

“It was a turning point for me. I felt terrible that no one has ever spoken about this world's biggest man-made contaminant" he added.

He then spoke to his brother, who is an engineer, to find out if an eco-friendly solution can be developed for this problem. Together with his brother Vipul Gupta, he founded a company called Code Effort on September 25, 2018. Vipul, who came from a science background helped with the machinery, chemicals, and infrastructure.

Naman Gupta (left) with his brother Vipul Gupta (right)

Since then, till March 2022, the company has recycled over 1.2 billion cigarette butts. They are also promoting a sustainable approach by setting up a factory in their village with the help of their landlord. They have also trained the women in the village and provided them with the necessary equipment so that they can be gainfully employed and contribute to the project.

"We gave them a sewing machine, needles, thread, fibers, and other relevant equipment and asked them to make the final product. Once the product gets ready, we pick the products from their houses and make the payments," Naman Gupta said.

Their recycling facility is located near Nangli Village, Sector 132, Noida. 

Setting Records In Collecting Cigarette Butts

Collecting the used cigarette butts proved to be one of the biggest problems for the duo. However, having their facility operational in the Delhi-Gurgaon region gave them an edge. Their model for collecting cigarette butts involves a two-fold approach- employing ragpickers to do it and collecting it directly from the smokers.

As of June 2022, Code Effort employs 2000 ragpickers across 132 districts and collects 1000 kg of cigarette waste daily. For each kg of cigarette butts collected, ragpickers get between INR 500 to INR 800.

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On the other hand, the duo has come up with an innovative solution called V-bin, where V stands for Value. In the absence of separate trashcans for smokers in public places, Code Effort wanted to install the V-bins at every 100-meters so that cigarette butts can be collected at the source.

Code Effort has installed V-bins in the market areas, corporate companies, smoking zones, and restaurants around Delhi, Noida, and Gurgaon. The V-bins are also sold separately. 

Details Of The Recycling Process

Explaining the process of recycling cigarette butts, Naman Gupta said that cigarette butts usually have three components - fiber, paper, and tobacco. All three components are upcycled by Code Effort to create various other sustainable products.

The residual tobacco collected from the cigarette butts Code Effort makes compost powder and donates it to the nearby farms and nurseries. The paper is recycled to first produce pulp, which is then recycled into sheets. According to Gupta, the paper is also used to produce mosquito repellent.

Their primary requirement, however, is the plastic in the cigarette butt. The butt is first treated with their proprietary process. After this, they go through quality approval and lab testing. Once the test is affirmative and the quality is certified, the fiber is used to fill cushions, soft toys, keychains, and artifacts. 

Current Status and A Vision For The Future

Since 2018, Code Effect has invested around 75 lakhs in the project, which includes the running expenses, operations expenses, and working capital. In the village, Code Effect employs more than 100 women regularly to make finished products.

The company is planning to scale up further with an eye on a sustainable future for all. They plan to recycle 400 to 500 tonnes of cigarette waste by 2025. Naman and Vipul Gupta are also planning to start a new venture called Decor Earth which will focus exclusively on final products.

The Gupta brothers are also in discussions with two venture capitalists and may be able to raise seed funding by the end of FY 2022.

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