125+ kg of hazardous
waste. Not in a landfill.

Before Battery Bin was a recycling initiative, it was a realisation. The Ghazipur landfill — one of the largest in Delhi NCR, taller than the Qutb Minar — made it impossible to look away from a question that seemed simple but turned out not to be: where is someone supposed to take a dead battery? The answer, for most people, is the bin. And from the bin, the landfill. Lithium-ion and alkaline batteries contain cadmium, lead, nickel, zinc, and mercury. A single cell can contaminate hundreds of kilolitres of groundwater over years of leaching. Most people don't know this. Most people don't have a convenient alternative even if they did.

I built Battery Bin in Grade 10 to fix both problems at once: collection infrastructure and education together. I placed bins at school, partnered with certified recycling channels, and started tracking every kilogram. The first 25 kg in April 2026 felt like a milestone. Being invited to speak about it to nearly a thousand students in a full school auditorium in May 2026 — that was the moment I understood how far the idea could travel. I've now collected and recycled 125+ kg of batteries in total.

In August 2026, I expanded Battery Bin's scope into full e-waste collection — through my role as Head of Operations for North India at Threco (The Recycling Company), a CPCB-authorised national e-waste management company. I used the Battery Bin network I'd already built — the schools, the teachers, the institutional relationships — to start collecting e-waste alongside batteries. I've personally collected 100 kg of e-waste through these partnerships as Threco's North India representative. Both streams are now running in parallel.

What I've built and how it works

• Founded in Grade 10 — placed collection bins with education materials explaining battery toxicity and why landfill disposal is so damaging
• Partnered with certified recycling channels for proper downstream processing of every collected battery
• 125+ kg of batteries collected and recycled total — every kilogram tracked and recorded
• Used the Environmental Club to recruit volunteers in Grade 11; became OC in Grade 12 through demonstrated impact
• Showcased at Urja school science festival — 650+ visitors, 60 activity sheets completed, 16 batteries collected on event day alone
• Spoke to ~1,000 students in a school auditorium in May 2026 after the first 25 kg milestone (April 2026)
• From August 2026: expanded into e-waste collection through Threco partnership — 100 kg e-waste collected personally as Head of Operations, North India
• Bringing Threco's initiative to new schools across North India using Battery Bin's existing partnerships as the entry point

From school bins to national e-waste operations

In August 2026, Battery Bin's network became the foundation for something much bigger. I reached out to Threco through their social media, we had a series of online meetings, and I became Head of Operations for North India. I've used the Battery Bin school partnerships to start e-waste collection and am expanding Threco's presence into new schools across the region.

What's next