Idea : Recycling Plastic Bag

Thinking green in the week of "World Earth Day"

We all use plastic bags - from grocery, apparel, utility store etc... but very few of us recycle them in India. Only way a plastic bag is probably recycled now is through some separation of plastic bags that are thrown into the waste & % of this recycle is very low.

Here is an idea to improve this situation in India, at least to start with metro regions...

• Make recycle quality plastic bags, that can be branded to the retails needs (Spencer, Foodworld etc)
• Print a text on the bag, if the user "returns" these cover back into a designated collection points - he would get around INR 25p or 50p (depending on value of recycling)
• Put up collection points, that would have "recycle bins" at the retail outlets or tie-up with city corporation & setup at Post Offices or government buildings
• We will need smart machines that can accept "clean" - recycle quality covers, count them & dispense money back for the user

this seems a noble way of giving something back to the environment... looking forward for people in this domain of plastic bags, recycle experts to validate this & take it forward.

-Bhaskara

Now, this is called "after sales support"...

I ride an electric bike "Yo Speed" from Electrotherm (http://yobykes.in/) for the past 11 months, I have been happy with the purchase decision & love the bike... doing my bit to save the environment. First week of April, I got a call from the dealer saying... "sir, we have a free service & could you leave your vehicle for service" - I thought it was a routine free service they give within the first year, but was surprised with the free service that was done to my bike... they had replaced some of the vehicle parts with new one...

• front fork
• front wheel rim
• brake pads
• stand for the bike

these parts are at least worth INR 2000.00 or above, for a bike that I purchased for INR 36K, this is a pretty good "after sales" to upgrade the old bikes with new parts... really impressed with this company. We have several other companies in India that don't even come to 10% of this level of "after sales" service... which is a sad story, companies need to understand a "happy customer" means they have a higher NPR score! and higher chances of free advertising by the users of the product.

-Bhaskara

Innovation, G20, Entrepreneurship...

I'm back after a long silence, to share few web resources that I think would be a good read:

1. Interesting model for "Engaging Individuals in Idea Management" (new product development) - "The ORCHID Model" - Observer, Ringmaster, Creator, Helper, Inquisitor, Doer - http://www.imaginatik.com/site/pdfs/Imaginatik%20WP-0503-1%20The%20ORCHID%20Model.pdf - this white paper explains the individual styles of the people & how to build the teams for creating successful products.

2. Interesting blog resource from the CEO of Imaginatik, some of his posts are thought provoking - http://markturrell.wordpress.com/ - read the posts on "Enterprise Crowdsourcing", "Stepping Up" - he basically writes in the space of innovation

3. About current state of the Economy, ET Columnist MK Venu's - has written some great articles over the past few weeks, links to some of them are below:

a) G20 & Epidemic of over production - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/MK-Venu-G-20-and-Overproduction/articleshow/4368049.cms
b) Innovative Ideas required to spur economy - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/MK-Venu-Innovation-must-to-spur-eco/articleshow/4273779.cms

4. Crash Course on Economy & current state by Chris Martenson - http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse/chapter-1-three-beliefs

Hope you find these resources useful... do reply back with your thoughts to me.

Thanks
Bhaskara