- Angel Imdad, known as Karachi’s ‘Kachra Rani’, heads Irverde, a startup combating Karachi’s mounting waste problem. With expertise in bio-hazardous waste management, she founded Irverde to address waste challenges through innovative recycling methods.
- Irverde collects and transforms various waste types, creating compost, furniture, cutlery, and more. The startup collaborates with recyclers and advocates waste material’s potential as raw materials for other industries.
- Irverde empowers women via textile waste management, creating products like tote bags. The startup conducts workshops, collaborates with waste providers, and aims to teach children sustainable practices. Angel plans waste management training in government schools.
Solid waste management in Karachi is one the biggest perils of today which is escalating by the day due to rapid urbanization. A startup in Karachi, Irverde and its founder ‘Angel Imad’ aka Karachi’s ‘Kachra Rani’ has been working tirelessly to help Karachi embrace a Zero waste lifestyle.
Who is Karachi’s ‘Kachra Rani’?
Angel Imdad is a messiah for Karachi’s garbage situation, the young woman has an educational background in environmental management and has completed her M.Phil. She specialized in bio-hazardous waste management. She founded her startup ‘Irverde’ by bringing her thesis to life, in order to eliminate the numerous problems related to solid waste management in the city.
The Kachra Rani and her team work mainly by collecting the garbage and recycling it, they are currently making compost from food waste, furniture from wood waste, cutlery from food fibre, and much more from the plastic waste they gather. The startup has also formed alliances with various recyclers for further plastic recycling.
Angel says,
“The waste of one industry could be used as a raw material for another. For example soda cans can be recycled to create aluminium sheets and many similar products.”
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The startup works by conducting educational workshops and awareness programs within various institutions such as hospitals to emphasize the significance of the 3R principles – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
Irverde also works efficiently as a scrap collector where they strategically enter the market, enticing waste providers with financial rewards, subsequently trading the acquired materials to scrap dealers for profit.
In a video coverage by Times of Karachi, Angel sends out a message to the people of Karachi saying,
“Sustainability can only be achieved when the communit works together, it cannot be solely one person’s responsibility to achieve the desired results.”
The startup led by Angel Imdad has also begun to work for the up-liftment of women through the textile waste management. These women are given the opportunity to improve their standard of living and contribute to the country’s economy. The textile waste leads to making tote bags and other items.
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Karachi Waste Management’s Dire Situation
The garbage piling up in Karachi is mostly affecting the less privileged areas – the slum areas and industrial areas. People who reside nearby face air, water and land pollution. It is approximated that about 40% of Karachi’s solid waste ends up strewn across its streets.
The mismanagement of solid waste not only propagates the spread of infectious diseases but also exacerbates environmental contamination. Such severe pollution has caused Karachi to rank 5th among the world’s most polluted cities according to the Air Quality Index.
Angel Imdad mentions that they are going to provide training for waste management in government schools from this month.
“We are going to empower the children who are actually the most affected by teaching them a few lifestyle choices they can adopt.”
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