---
title: "Why Starbase Innovations exists"
description: "22% of India’s solid waste is unaccounted for every day. Why we think recording each hand-off, from doorstep to recycler, is part of the fix."
url: "https://starbaseinnovations.in/why"
updated: "2026-10-30T02:14:23.893Z"
---

# Why Starbase exists

Between a home and a recycler, waste changes hands several times, and the record breaks at each hand-off. That is the part we can help fix.

## Waste changes hands four times. The record breaks at each hand-off.

Dry waste from a home or a panchayat collection point passes through several businesses before it is recycled. Most hand-offs are settled with paper slips, cash and phone calls, so it is hard to say how much was collected, what it was worth or where it ended up.

1. **Generator** — Homes, flats, offices and panchayat collection points sort and hand over dry waste. They rarely know who will collect it, when, or what it is worth. Lost at the next hand-off: Who collected it, what it weighed and the price paid.
2. **Scrap dealer (kabadiwala)** — Haritha Karma Sena units and private dealers collect, weigh and pay. Prices and volumes live in notebooks. Lost at the next hand-off: Which pickups a load came from.
3. **Aggregator** — Yards and material recovery facilities buy from dealers, sort by grade and bale. When a yard shuts, dealers find out when they arrive. Lost at the next hand-off: The source of each baled lot.
4. **Recycler** — Plants buy baled material but can’t show where it came from — which brands now need for their EPR reports.

_At most arrows today: paper slips, cash and phone calls._

- **1,70,339 t** of solid waste generated in India every day — as of Mar 2022 ([CPCB Annual Report on SWM 2021-22](https://cpcb.gov.in/uploads/MSW/MSW_AnnualReport_2021-22.pdf))
- **54%** of it is processed or treated — as of Mar 2022 ([CPCB Annual Report on SWM 2021-22](https://cpcb.gov.in/uploads/MSW/MSW_AnnualReport_2021-22.pdf))
- **22%** is unaccounted for — 37,373 tonnes a day neither processed nor sent to a sanitary landfill — as of Mar 2022 ([CPCB Annual Report on SWM 2021-22](https://cpcb.gov.in/uploads/MSW/MSW_AnnualReport_2021-22.pdf))
- **3,472 t** of solid waste generated every day in Kerala — as of Mar 2022 ([CPCB Annual Report on SWM 2021-22](https://cpcb.gov.in/uploads/MSW/MSW_AnnualReport_2021-22.pdf))

These CPCB figures cover all municipal solid waste, wet and dry. They show the size of the gap, not our market: Swastha works on the logistics of dry and reject waste.

## We don’t replace the people who move waste. We give them a record.

- **Work with the people already doing the job** — Haritha Karma Sena units, kabadiwalas and existing aggregators keep their customers and their margins. We bring tools, not competition.
- **Record every movement we handle** — Today Swastha logs each trip with the vehicle, the stops, photos and the weight delivered. Next, we want the same record for hand-offs between households, dealers, aggregators and recyclers.
- **Manage by exception** — We design for rules to make routine choices, such as which vehicle takes a job, and for people to step in only when the rules can’t. That way the network can grow faster than our team.

## See how Swastha connects the chain