This MBA Grad Turns Waste Into Wonder!

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Many students venture into starting their businesses after completing their MBA. One thing remains constant— their dream to establish highly profitable organizations, but only a few think about sustainability.

Mehul Shroff, an MBA graduate from the Burhanpur district of Madhya Pradesh, understood the need for a viable and sustainable business model and realized the potential of waste material being dumped in his neighborhood.

In 2018, Shroff founded MangalamKalpataru Industries, a company that transforms agricultural waste into valuable goods. His environmentally friendly business produces stems from bananas into fibers that can be used to make papers, textiles, and handicrafts.

Now, Shroff's firm sells around 60 tons of banana fibers and makes more than 30 lakhs in revenue each year.

Quest for a sustainable business idea

Shroff joined his family's firm in 2016 after graduating, but his desire to launch his own venture prompted him to look for practical and ethical business concepts.

At that point, he ran into Burhanpur's District Magistrate, who counseled him to start with his own district and offer grassroots remedies.

He was able to develop a nearly ideal company plan with the aid of some studies and workshops. He quickly established a processing facility in Burhanpur and began buying banana stems from local farmers.

Helping farmers along the way

The local farmers are grateful for Shroff's initiative. The procurement team is sent to the field when a farmer alerts him to the necessity to clean up the field after harvest. They remove agricultural waste from the fields by clearing it and moving it to the processing facility.

According to Shroff, who currently obtains stems from 50 to 100 farmers in the area on a regular basis, "this helps them reduce the expense of the work involved in cutting the stems and clearing the field." Shroff's company prevents the post-harvest from being thrown in the trash.

Waste to works of art

The banana fiber produced by his startup is used to make handicrafts like baskets, ropes, brooms, yoga mats, wall clocks, and much more. These products range from INR 100 to INR 2,000, depending on the size and intricacy of the work.

Fibers are a fantastic alternative for creating paper. However, producing paper from banana fiber requires a lot of labor. So, the firm provides the raw ingredients and outsources the processing labor, Shroff shared.

Currently, Shroff is handling the B2B model of marketing for his business and working towards spreading awareness in this regard, in an attempt to build a larger market for his goods.