Urban Trash: A startup’s success story in managing waste

Thajudeen Aboobaker launched his startup in March 2022 with an investment of Rs 50,000, which was raised entirely as a loan, and his firm’s current annual revenue is around Rs 1 crore. The company, Urban Trash, was started by Thajudeen along with Afzal Muhammed to manage waste generated in urban areas and currently operates in Kochi.

Thajudeen, Founder & CEO of Urban Trash, will be a speaker at Manorama Online Techspectations 2025, Kerala’s largest digital summit to be held at Hotel Le Meridien in Kochi on February 7.

Thajudeen refers to his firm as a business-to-business venture. The company collects waste from business establishments according to their demand and processes it in a responsible manner. Through its efforts, Urban Trash seeks to reduce environmental problems caused by waste, said Thajudeen.

Business establishments pay a monthly subscription to Urban Trash to gather their waste. The waste collection takes place at a time which is convenient for the establishments. Urban Trash accepts food and dry waste from the firms with which it signs a contract. The firm also collects waste materials from big events in Kochi, when it has entered into an agreement with the organisers.

While the food waste is transported to the processing plant of Urban Trash in Thrissur, the dry waste is sorted and handed over to other firms which manage such materials. Subscriptions are the main source of income for Urban Trash.

Realising a dream
Thajudeen was realizing a long-cherished dream by launching Urban Trash. Since his college days, Thajudeen wished to set up a startup and considered various options to turn his plan into reality. Many people discouraged him from following an unconventional path, and Thajudeen faced several setbacks in the initial years, but he overcame all hurdles with a firm resolve and achieved success.

Eight years ago, while a final year BSc Zoology student at Sri Sankaracharya College, Kalady, Thajudeen became interested in waste management and started studying about the process deeply. Along with attending regular classes, Thajudeen was also preparing for the Civil Service Examination at that time. However, his family and friends found his ideas strange and felt that waste management lacked glamour. Despite their concerns, Thajudeen stuck to his plans.

“I belong to Pallikkara and my house is close to the infamous Brahmapuram waste management plant in Ernakulam. Since childhood, I observed the problems faced by the plant and while a student at Sri Sankara College, I started studying in detail about waste management,” said Thajudeen.

He mainly depended on online courses for this purpose and, after completing them, worked with people engaged in waste management. “Few people carried out scientific waste management those days,” said Thajudeen.

Such interactions led Thajudeen to Green Worms, a waste management company operating in Kozhikode and its founder, Jabbar Karat. Even though Green Worms had not achieved significant success in the field, Jabbar could explain to Thajudeen the challenges faced by operators. Thajudeen joined Green Worms after considering the matter for a week as the company was a new one, but he acquired valuable experience in waste management.

Soon, Thajudeen set out on his own and launched several ventures engaged in waste management. However, all of them failed. During this period, Green Worms invited him back to their company. A little while later, Thajudeen worked as a project coordinator of a major CSR initiative in Kozhikode; but he quit that post also to pursue his dream of becoming an entrepreneur.

Success with Urban Trash
Thajudeen said that the series of business failures had wrecked his finances. However, he received good support from Kerala Startup Mission which enabled him to launch Urban Trash.

“At Urban Trash, our goal is to turn waste management into a respectable profession. Most of our employees are young people,” said Thajudeen, who will share his experiences and dreams at Techspectations 2025.

Techspectations 2025 on February 7
The theme of ‘Manorama Online Techspectations 2025’, the sixth edition of Kerala’s largest digital summit, is ‘Transforming future; AI for everyday life.’ The event will discuss the latest trends in the digital world to come up with path-breaking ideas. Manorama Online is organising the summit along with Jain University and Google India. For more details and to reserve seats, click here.

Techspectations 2025 will discuss topics including the latest opportunities in the constantly-evolving digital world, massive changes brought about by Artificial Intelligence (AI), potential for AI in news sector, the amazing world of data analytics and the entrepreneurial revolutions enabling the setting up of startups as well as big brands in the country, including Kerala. A special debate on the state’s potential and progress in IT is also a part of the event.

The aim of Manorama Online Techspectations is providing a platform to engage in discussions that enable the participants to join the rapid advancements in the digital world. Launched in 2016, Manorama Online Techspectations was earlier held successfully in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2023.

CEOs, CTOs, CXOs, VPs, senior managers, directors, board members, managers and HoDs of major firms, IT engineers, developers, entrepreneurs, business partners, digital marketing professionals, professors, researchers, students, government officers, business consultants and executives will participate in the event.

The fifth edition of Techspectations held in Kochi two years ago had the theme, ’Manorama Online@25: Absorb, Evolve & Thrive in New Digital Order.’