Waste Warriors – Keeling Curve Prize Awardee

Dear All,

I’m delighted to share that Waste Warriors Society, a non-profit organization aimed at solving the waste management crisis in the Indian Himalayan Region was recently awarded the prestigious Keeling Curve Prize 2023 in Detroit by the Global Warming Mitigation Project. It is an honor to be the only Indian organization to be selected for this award, given to the top ten solutions globally to mitigate the climate crisis.

Left: Open dumping and burning of waste in Purola, Uttarkashi | Middle: Waste dump on the banks of Ganga, Uttarkashi | Right: Cleanup in Triund Peak, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh

As a young CEO of Waste Warriors, I am fortunate to lead a team of 180+ Warriors working passionately on the ground to set up waste management systems in the eco-sensitive Indian Himalayan Regions (IHR). Over 8.4 million MT of waste is generated in the IHR annually & most of it is dumped and burnt in the open in our forests, & rivers.

As a decade old non-profit organization working in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, our work is an intersection of climate change, biodiversity habitat conservation and dignified livelihood generation especially for women.

Our mission is to catalyze systemic change by (i) enabling better governance – through setting up infrastructure and local policies, (ii) activating communities including locals and tourists to co-create solutions, (iii) empowering local entrepreneurs to build sustainable businesses through collection, recycling and upcycling waste (iv) engage in research and policy advocacy specific to the Indian Himalayan Region.

Most Indians visit the US for the first time to either study or work. However, it was an honor for me to be invited to the US on my first visit to represent Waste Warriors in the award announcement party for the Keeling Curve Prize 2023. I was also invited to attend the TED Countdown Summit on Climate Change in Detroit in July 2023 & got a chance to interact with 1000+ change makers globally and 50+ inspirational speakers including the likes of Al Gore. It was a fanboy moment for me to meet Chris Anderson, the Curator of TED who turned out to be an alumnus of Woodstock School in Mussorie. 🙂

In line with the Warrior spirit of leaving every place better than we find it, I also did a cleanup with a friend from 33rd Street Station to the New York Times Square collecting a bag of trash along the way.