US investment management firm Circulate Capital (Brooklyn, New York; www.circulatecapital.com) and Indian venture capitalist Aavishkaar Capital (Mumbai, Maharashtra; www.aavishkaarcapital.in) have announced an USD 18m (EUR 14.8m) investment in the dry-waste management company Nepra Resource Management (Ahmedabad, Gujarat / India; www.nepra.co.in). Circulate said the funds are to support the expansion of the company’s capacity and geographic reach and to scale its impact across India.

A collector and processor of dry waste, Nepra Resource Management partners with 1,700 waste-pickers and collectors to process about 500 t of waste every day across the Indian cities of Ahmedabad, Indore and Pune. Nepra CEO Sandeep Patel said, “We aim to utilise this funding to expand our operations nationally. We work closely with municipalities to organise dry-waste collection, improve revenues for the informal sector and ensure quality feedstock for recyclers, which helps improve efficiency along the entire value chain.”

Currently, waste management is an extensive issue in India, where 62m t of consumer waste is generated every year. While 90% of this waste is collected in the country, 80% of it ends up in either open landfills or is released into the environment, according to Circulate Capital.