Ten years ago, we stepped into an industry that most people overlooked.
At the time, we didn’t realise we were stepping into a space few understood and even fewer believed in. At the time, waste management wasn’t a word people used in boardrooms or an industry your friends were building careers around. And it definitely wasn’t a place investors were queueing up to fund.
*Founders’ Rahul Nainani & Gurashish Singh Sahni during Radiconnect
We heard all kinds of advice.
“Play it safe.”
“Wait a little longer.”
“This isn’t your battle to fight.”
Some thought we were being idealistic. Others hoped we’d grow out of it. After all, who chooses to work in waste?
And honestly, even we didn’t have all the answers. What we had was a growing discomfort with a system that was discarding not just materials, but people. So we asked the hard questions, said yes to things we weren’t ready for, and figured it out on the go.
That belief, that waste is just misplaced value, and that recovery can be built around people, became the foundation of ReCircle.
And today, we mark a decade of turning that belief into bold, everyday action.
* Rahul Nainani, Co-founder & CEO and Gurashish Singh Sahni, Co-founder & COO at Google Startup Weekend pitching Raddiconnect.
What 10 years of showing up has turned into:
269,000 metric tonnes of waste recovered and diverted away from landfills and oceans, and reintroduced into the economy as usable, valuable material.
3,100+ Safai Saathis empowered with access to PPE, training, digital IDs, insurance, and significantly increased income — proving that social equity and environmental action go hand in hand.
Self-owned PET recycling plant to ensure that businesses have access to high-quality recycled material that meets sustainability and compliance goals.
Our proprietary tech platform, ClimaOne, that makes waste traceable and connects every stakeholder. Materials that we once lost to landfills are now transparent and traceable across the supply chain.
Partnerships across sectors, cities, and supply chains. From government bodies & FMCG giants, to schools and offices, we’ve co-created waste solutions that are scalable, inclusive, and built to last.
A successful model for ethical circularity where waste is seen as a resource, recovery is designed around people, and circularity is made profitable, ethical, and measurable.
This work has taught us more than any textbook ever could about power, policy, equity, and resilience. And if there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that real impact doesn’t come from big ideas alone. It comes from showing up, again and again, for the people who make those ideas real.
The Challenges Behind the Change
But building this wasn’t easy. We didn’t just want to build cleaner systems. We wanted to build differently.
Early on, we realised that to do this right, we had to earn trust from partners, institutions, and even from the very people we wanted to work alongside.
And trust, as we’ve learned, doesn’t come with a fancy deck or a pitch. It comes from showing up, again and again, whether in landfills, in boardrooms, or at the heart of local communities.
* Gurashish Singh Sahni with a recycler during the early days of Raddiconnect
The People Who Made This Possible
We met Safai Saathis, who’d been working with their hands in unimaginable conditions without any safety, dignity or support. And that’s when we realised that fixing waste would mean reimagining everything we thought we knew about it.
We started small, focused on doing the right thing, even when it didn’t scale. Slowly, a team grew around us, which grew into a network and eventually into a movement for ethical circularity and inclusive waste systems.
*Team ReCircle at their 2024 Offsite, Lonavala
What the next 10 years of ReCircle look like
We’re expanding into new waste streams, scaling infrastructure and smarter systems. And we’re doing it all while staying true to what got us here: curiosity, community, and a belief that waste is just misplaced value.
We’ve spent 10 years proving that waste has value. We will be spending the next 10 building a world without it!
Thank you for being a part of this journey, whether you’ve been with us from Day 1, or just discovered us today.
There’s still a lot left to do. And we’re glad we get to do it with you.
– Rahul Nainani, Co-founder & CEO
– Gurashish Sahni, Co-founder & COO
