The Kabadiwala or scrap dealer
Whenever we come across the term kabadiwala or scrap dealer, we imagine a cart full of scrap, being pulled by a person. The person is known as a scrap dealer or a scrap merchant.
A kabadiwala is a dealer who buys the scrap at a reasonable rate and provides it to the companies so as to make eco-friendly goods. Hence, they are referred to as green merchants.
Today, billions of scrap merchants or scrap dealers have taken up the charge of making India a clean and green place to dwell. Let us know more about them.
Scrap Dealer – the ancient period
There is not much reliable information about the history of scrap dealers. In India, Kabadiwalas are in play for centuries. In the medieval period, scrap dealers were not much recognized. Certainly, due to fewer opportunities and planning, their population was limited. not much of the world realized the need of guiding trash to fate or use the services provided by a scrap dealer.
In the ancient period, industrial waste was equivalent to no entity. The landfills and big garbage bins for not attended cautiously.
However, it is believed that the metal scrap was processed into tools and weapons by melting and reforming for centuries.
The ancient population made groups and assigned work among themselves. Some groups were supposed to collect all the scrap from the localities. The Other groups were assigned to process and perform the scrap two different methods some of them were responsible to release the final products as weapons tools and other useful material.
The Middle Ages
With the industrial revolution, there was a remarkable increase in concern and awareness about waste management. The authorities witnessed the degradation of resources and started to plan accordingly. The recyclers started to grow small businesses. A scrap dealer came into existence. There were a large number of volunteers, but due to the lack of modern technologies, not much percentage of scrap was recycled or utilized. However, metal and paper became the two most valuable commodities of the recycling sector. The products that involved the recycling of metal and paper were acknowledged on a large scale.
The Pre-independence Period
In the 1900s, the phrase waste as wealth was embraced by everyone. It signified the revenue to be earned from waste processing and reselling the products. It was then when people realized that not every waste is useless. Instead, it might be useful for a group of people and useless for another.
The Great Depression- During the 1930s, the world faced a severe global economic decline. Amidst the crisis, a drastic increase in the number of people becoming a scrap dealer was noticed. People survived the depression by recycling and dealing with a scrap of metal, paper, plastic, rags, and other items. It was the time when people came to know how waste can be a source of income and simultaneously profitable, both economically and environmentally.
The Modern Era
Designed by Gary Anderson in the late 1960s, the Mobius Strip of reducing, reuse, recycle became the symbol of awareness towards waste management. Keeping the concern and relative steps into consideration, the Government of India laid various foundations and policies to promote waste management across the country. In 2000, the government introduced Municipal Solid Wastages [managing and handling] Rules. But it did not accommodate the major link to the management, the kabadiwalas.
Later in 2016 the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Changes [MoEF & CC] were established, which included Kabadiwalas to the policy.
The Startup Notion
Among the various foundations currently involved in the matter of waste management, Swapeco Solutions Private Limited is a one-stop organization. Located in New Delhi, the team at Swapeco works as a scrap dealer. They collect the scrap from the doorsteps and deal it for money or grocery. The organization guarantees accurate weight measurement and provides the best rates for the waste. So you just don’t contribute towards a clean and green environment, but also earn from your scrap. They are available 24/7 at www.swapeco.com.
For more information, read – Kabadiwala: The Green Merchant
