How to make your Household Waste Management fun? Entrepreneur Vivek Gupta shares the RME way

Vivek Gupta did his B.Tech in Chemical Engineering (2004) from IIT-Bombay. Since then he spent a major part of his career working and travelling to many countries. He also did his MBA from Nyenrode Business University, The Netherlands (2009) in the meanwhile. Being entrepreneurial by nature, Vivek shifted to Singapore to manage an E-commerce start-up venture. During his stay with this company he met Rudy Fang. Rudy Fang’s outlook towards developing a waste recycling-culture inspired Vivek so much that he joined hands with Rudy in his endeavor, Recycle Management Enterprise. Now, he aspires to promote and develop a waste recycle-culture in his home country India.YourStory in conversation with Vivek Gupta:

What led to the starting up of Recycle Management Enterprise (RME) ?

Mr. Rudy Fang, who lived in Taiwan in the 1990s, experienced how Taiwanese embraced waste recycling in daily life as “culture”. When he moved to Singapore in 2002 he found out that although Singapore is one of the cleanest city and one with highest recycling rate in the world, Singaporeans do not have “recycle culture” (Singapore’s household waste recycling rate is relatively low). In 2009, he decided to setup a platform that would help public / corporate / governments in Asia build recycle culture, which led to the birth of Recycle Management Enterprise in Singapore. Recycle Management Enterprise (RME) was established with the purpose of providing consultancy and services in household waste recycling. At Recycle Management Enterprise we believe that household waste recycling can be “fun and rewarding experience” which motivates everybody to recycle and then create “recycle habit”, and finally together create “recycle culture”.

What is the key factor that differentiates RME from other eco initiatives?

RME uses “reward” – which is best human motivator – to sustainably change people’s behaviour towards waste recycling. Most green-projects hope to change behaviour by pushing for change in government policy e.g. by imposing regulation or enacting law – and most of them “punish” people instead.

What is Gus Gobbler, a marketing initiative or a permanent fixture in your green strategy?

GusGobbler as the name says is the one who gobbles (eats) everything; is our icon Mascot that is specifically designed as an attractive, bright and funny looking cartoon character so that we can create awareness of waste-recycling not just as an education/responsibility but more as fun. Soon, our GusGobbler Webportal, Gobbler Green-projects, Competition and iPhone games will be available to children and organization. To answer your question, it is both: a long term green awareness building approach and also a branding exercise to make RME top of the mind eco initiative in the region.

Revenue Model?

RME’s expenses are paid by corporate sponsorships and advertisements. The Recycle Vending Machines (RVMs) are something corporate love to associate themselves with (It could prove to be a break-through in their CSR strategies)But, Corporate themselves can not take the risk of diverting their focus and managing a green Recycle program that specifically requires a dedicated team-work and know-how. So, through sponsorship and advertisement they easily become part of our ongoing Clean & Green program nationwide. In Singapore and Indonesia we prefer long-term tie-ups for the self-sustainability of RME Green projects and programs. These RVMs are so beautifully designed and strategically placed in crowded areas like supermarkets-Malls, Stations that they become the source of attraction for all.

Apart from this we have our own certification program, where based on a few criteria we analyze the business on regular intervals and award them with Recycle Certification.

Tie ups, associations etc?

In Singapore we install recycle machines in high traffic places like supermarket chains e.g. FairPrice Supermarket. While rewards are provided by the sponsors, it is managed by our strategic reward partner Koovs. The same business model will be applied in all the other countries in Asia, including India where we plan to expand the business to.

The RME team?

We are less than a dozen member team now. We don’t plan to grow very big in terms of staff number as we prefer to work with partners and collaborators to get the domino effect in educating people to recycle. For India business, yes we are looking at hiring core team members.

Where do you see the green-projects space, five years from now?

Moving ahead, more business & non-business organizations and individuals will want to be “green”. They will either support existing green projects like what RME is doing or setup their own green-projects. The eco-system will be more diverse and sophisticated, which is favourable for RME to grow

Your expansion plans with an overview on the Indian market?

We started in Singapore. We are now looking at reaching out to Indonesia, Hong Kong and India markets. In ten years we plan to cover all Asian countries excluding Japan and Korea. Talking about India, we will concentrate on Tier2 and Tier3 cities to begin with and have our Recycle Vending Machines in Eco-Friendly Societies, Supermarkets, Malls,Tourist Attractions,Airports | Stations,For Internal/ dedicated use,Own premises e.g. Offices, Colleges, Schools

How easy/difficult it has been to grow the venture?

Unlike most people who correlate such Green ventures with Government initiatives, we at RME, a private limited company, are putting all our efforts in order to attract all 3Ps (People, Private - Corporate & Public - Government) together to join hands. Since the number of stakeholders are many it really needs huge efforts and time on our end to facilitate the hands meet.

As I have already mentioned a Green intiative is always a mass effort. We are looking for a right partner in India. After 20 months of our work in Singapore we have realized the bottlenecks in running of this project. The management of RME has sustained and genuine interest, which gives us edge over many other already existing green-venture & organisation. The market-data, research and strategies we have developed till now specifically target to meet the needs of Asian countries.

Personal and Professional Motivations?

Continuing to talk about his passion for spreading the knowledge among common people, Vivek tells us that entrepreneurship is not new to the world. “However, it is usually associated only with monetary success in business. I myself took a long-time to dissociate my thinking with the one stated earlier. Luckily, I came across few influencing personalities who over a period of time helped me in changing my outlook. Today, without being distracted by inflated future-targets I have learnt to enjoy and improve upon what I am involved with.”

While many keep contemplating to do something green and meaningful Vivek has gone ahead and done it. Will it usher more cleanliness and green consciousness? That time will tell, but we at YourStory are happy to know that RME started and is expanding its footprints.

Watch out this space for more updates on RME.