Purav Desai

Purav Desai - Indian, Asia and the Pacific

2020 Winner | Entrepreneur | Indian

Recube Circular Solutions is a social enterprise that seeks to revolutionize the way we consume every day. We aim to eradicate single-use disposables in the food and beverage (F&B), fast moving consumer goods, entertainment & e-commerce industries through our reusable systems. We provide a 360 degree service and have partnered with over 150 brands (including inter alia: Burger King, Starbucks, Bacardi) and 75 events (including: the Cricket World Cup 2019, U2 Mumbai Concert, VH1 Supersonic to name a few.) In the F&B sector we manufacture durable packaging made out of crop waste which is usually burnt and a major cause of air pollution. At events we set up unique collection points to collect back packaging, sterilise it and put it back into the circular economy. We also set up water refill points to provide unlimited free water to eliminate the usage of plastic bottles. The pandemic has successfully helped people understand the importance of health and hygiene but it has also accelerated an increase in the consumption of single use plastic bottles. Therefore we have started Refillable which is a service where home & hygiene care liquids are packed into reusable and refillable aluminium and rice husk bottles and together with a mobile refill truck, affordably delivers products to the consumer's doorstep. We have already diverted over 5 million disposables from the landfill by helping 150 companies go zero waste in 1 year.

Passionate about business, sports and the environment, I set up my first business at the age of 17 to provide solar rooftop solutions to polluting industries on a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) model. I was part of the core team that raised money to build multiple wells in the watershed regions of Maharashtra, a project which won the best Rotaract project in Sydney and organised a nationwide chess competition for the visually impaired. I am particularly passionate about sports industries and social enterprises scaling up and creating an impact.

Disclaimer: NOTE: This content was shared online for the 2019 cycle of the Young Champions of the Earth programme and has not been updated. This listing does not constitute any endorsement by nor status with the UN Environment Programme.

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