• Waste Management Technologies

India has been recording an increase in PM 2.5 pollution since 2010. According to the World Air Quality Report, 14 of the world’s top 20 most polluted cities are located in India with the building and infrastructure industry contributing 39 percent of the total energy-related carbon emissions. With the intention of creating a commercial solution to curb carbon emission, a Mumbai-based startup is turning polluted air into carbon tiles. Tejas was inspired by a company, Air-Ink, that turns soot into ink, and began exploring how pollution can be converted into building materials. In May 2019, Carbon Craft Design launched its first carbon tile production. The manufacturing of carbon tiles is a three-step process. First, carbon is collected from tire pyrolysis-based factories, which is then processed at a facility and finally converted into tiles at a manufacturing unit located in Morbi, Gujarat. The entire process of making these tiles consumes one-fifth of the energy required to make vitrified tiles and reduces air pollution by 30,000 liters of carbon for each tile made. “When we realized that 39 percent of energy-related carbon emissions are due to the building and infrastructure industry, it made sense to look at air pollution as a larger issue,” Tejas says. Apart from having a zero-waste manufacturing process Carbon Craft Design provides employment to local artisans by incorporating traditional techniques into the manufacturing process.