The destiny of our environment is in our hands. We need to change certain beliefs today.
-Kedar Sohoni, Founder, Green Communities Foundation

Green Communities Foundation (GCF) is a not for profit company working in the waste management and sustainability space in urban and rural areas in and around Mumbai. Our mission is diversion of waste from landfills and to that end we offer end-to-end services to assist any waste generator into turning waste neutral.

Since it commenced work in May 2017, GCF has worked with over 200 societies, commercial establishments, institutions and schools and saved over 5000 tonnes of MSW from going into landfills through a combination of segregation at source, composting and recycling.

Founded by Kedar Sohoni, a technology entrepreneur and IIT and IIM alumnus, GCF was born in 2017 after Kedar started experimenting with managing the waste being produced by his own home and a year later had managed to turn his 220 apartment society waste neutral.Our team comprises of professionals from different backgrounds who have worked closely with waste management and the environment.

We offer an easy, affordable and efficient solid waste management implementation process.

What is the problem GCF is trying to solve?

Urban India produces about 6.2 crore tonnes of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) every year. Less than 70% of this is collected, less than 20% is treated, and more than 50% is dumped. Mumbai generates over 11,000 tons of MSW per day, most of which is dumped or illegally burnt. Less than 10% of this waste is segregated and even lesser is actually treated.

Improper waste management creates air, soil and water pollution and mixed waste is either sent to dumping grounds or burnt. Mumbai has no further space for new landfills and needs to urgently address it’s mounting waste problem.

In addition, by failing to recover valuable resources from waste, we miss the large economic opportunity that can be worth billions and an opportunity to create livelihood for millions of our citizens.Through our work, we realised that most of the problems being faced by India with regard to its waste management woes can be solved through decentralized waste management as the two main causes of our waste crisis are:

Lack of Segregation at Source: Most of the waste generated in the country, including Mumbai is unsegregated, which makes it almost impossible to recycle or process and is therefore sent to landfills or burnt illegally.

Lack of Infrastructure to Close the Loop: Even if waste is segregated by individual generators, it is mixed at the time of collection by the waste compactors, discouraging segregation. This lack of infrastructure for collection, transportation, storage and recycling of segregated waste is a huge contributor to the waste crisis plaguing our country.

Proper management of waste needs concerted effort at various levels starting with the consumer who is the waste generator and then extending to various stakeholders like government bodies, NGOs, producers and entrepreneurs. Its a complex team effort that can best be compared to a relay race where each stakeholder has to play their role without dropping the ‘baton’.

GCF is playing its part by trying to create successful models of Waste Management in both urban and rural areas.