By Melissa Reynolds

Ever heard the saying that one man's trash is another man's treasure? Well, one man may have found the treasure by turning garbage into a profitable resource.

Parag Gupta is exploring this theory and more in a blog, www.socialedge.org/blogs/talking-trash, where he looks at the burden of waste, especially on low income people, and discusses how it can be turned into a positive thing through his newest venture, WasteBank. Garbage creates 4% of greenhouse gasses globally, most specifically methane gas which is more harmful than carbon dioxide, so a focus on garbage, and its commercial potential, was an area that needed to be investigated.

Gupta, formerly Associate Director at the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and Fellow at the World Economic Forum, begins by explaining that his new program, WasteBank, began this past summer by auditing current solid waste management practices to optimize a model that could deliver superior financial, environmental and social returns for everyone involved.

WasteBank is an organization working to commercialize the solid waste management sector at the Base of Pyramid (BoP), the lowest socio-economic sector. Gupta explains that WasteBank will provide financial and technical expertise to make ventures more profitable for everyone involved - the entrepreneur, the waste pickers and the investors. "Garbage entrepreneurs exist all over the developing world," says Gupta. "Helping waste pickers at the Base of Pyramid form a livelihood, reducing the harmful effects of garbage... WasteBank provides these entrepreneurs a blueprint of solid waste management involving fees for service garbage collection, sorting the garbage into inorganic waste sold as recyclables, organic waste turned into compost, and then monetizing the carbon offsets."

WasteBank began by taking a look at what is currently done with garbage at the BoP. It examined groups from non-profit organizations, such as Ciudad Saludable, to profit-makers, such as Waste Concern. What it found was that there is room for improvement.

"Very few entrepreneurs carry out the full value chain of activities from collection all the way through carbon monetization with no one yet being commercially profitable," says Gupta. "It is exciting to know we are pioneering in the field. Currently the blueprint would create a cooperative of waste pickers for recyclables while engaging the waste entrepreneur in composting/greenhouse gas monetization."

The short term goal for WasteBank is to build a model of solid waste management in the developing world that both reduces its environmental impact and empowers garbage workers with a better living situation. Gupta then hopes to make BoP waste management the second successfully scaled social entrepreneur sector and then take the same approach to other sectors. For the immediate future, Gupta is turning his attention to building the operational aspects of WasteBank.

Gupta began his blog as a way to provide exposure for his project and to elicit reader feedback. He also hopes to provide the Social Edge community with a look at creating a business at the BoP.

For Gupta, taking on the task of garbage was an easy choice. He cites both the social and environmental need, not to mention the impact it has on everyone, no matter where they live.

"Tackling garbage at the BoP reduces greenhouse gasses, generates improved livelihoods for waste pickers, and creates better hygienic conditions within crowded neighborhoods," says Gupta.

Talking Trash also deals with the issues of social entrepreneurship, venture funding, and the BoP in California. For more on Gupta's blog, visit www.socialedge.org/blogs/talking-trash.