The story of C4C began on August 18th 2023, when our Founder and President, Schahmyr Siddiqui, envisioned a world where a small initiative in the right direction could drive a positive change and help improve the lives of the most marginalized communities around. Schahmyr, during his internship program as a Research Intern, understood the dire need to improve the plastic waste collection methods as the company was struggling with its sustainability goals for recycling initiatives. He worked with the team to understand the collection and recycling process in more detail and realized that waste collection is mostly done by unorganized sector where the poor community workers spend hours in collecting waste from landfills and dumpsites. Most of the plastic waste coming into recycling was from areas of poverty, to solve the problem he had to look downstream to help end poverty and upstream to improve supply of pre-processed materials for recycling.
He recognized the problem quickly; these collectors are limited by the huge volume of plastic bottles that they carry in handheld collection bags. This limits the amount of material they can offer on a daily basis and hence the incomes are compromised. Secondly, due to the very high transportation costs their output was also limited as they will end up saving nothing. Schahmyr started by launching a partnership idea where both the partners get a win-win situation. The envisaged project included a simple concept requiring a small investment from the company to install an electric crusher at a convenient location near these communities to help them crush the collected waste first and then bring it to recycling sale points. The idea was as easy to understand and implement by all the stakeholders as it sounds.
What began as a bold idea is now a reality that empowers underserved communities across Khanpur to transform plastic waste collection by improving incomes and providing economic and social benefits.
At Crush 4 Change, our mission is to foster economic empowerment through sustainable ecosystems. C4C aims to catalyze change by providing the tools and knowledge to the complete waste collection and recycling industry enabling the true concept of circular ecosystem. Our goal is to lead the way in sustainable practices and social equity, creating a cleaner planet and stronger communities. Crush 4 Change represents an important first innovation opportunity to develop inspiration and expertise in responding to the challenge of waste collection amongst the most marginal communities in the underdeveloped world.
