“Greener Way” Is Bhutan’s First Waste Management Company

The case study is about the entrepreneur Mr. Karma Yonten who is the founder of Greener way (waste management). This case mainly brief about who they are, what they do, vision and mission or the principle on which their business is based and functions, ideas and motivation on becoming the entrepreneur, challenges while starting and doing the business and their future plan. All those sort of questionnaires are done through personally interview, email and massager.

Moreover, he shared about the opportunities for the young entrepreneurs to put their ideas into working business and the incentives provided by the government to the various agencies in terms of financial and funding.

Karma is the founder of Bhutan’s first waste service firm established in 2010. The Prince’s Youth Business International has also recognized him as the Environmental Entrepreneur of 2013 at the Global Youth. He also shared that he is happy to have lived up to His Majesty the Kings expectations of being the best not only in Bhutan but also globally. (Karma Yonten / Loden Foundation, 2013)

“Greener way” is Bhutan’s first waste management company which was established in 2010 aim to manage and recycle waste in Thimphu in an efficient and environmentally sound, technically feasible, cost effective and publicly acceptable manner. Once collected, the waste is separatedbetween dry waste and wet waste. Dry waste is sent to the resource recovery center where it is recycled and reused, while wet waste is transported to a composting plant to produce manure.

The company also serve the community by organizing presentations and workshops in schools and colleges to educate individuals on waste management. Greener way employs about 70 workers.

”Greener way is an integrated municipal solid waste management company that goes beyond waste collection but focuses on recycling and diversion of waste to minimize waste going to the landfill”, said Karma Yonten (CEO)

Greener Way is an integrated waste management company established out of a mere passion of a single man in attempts of creating Waste management industry in Bhutan. The company today, is manned with 80 plus committed individuals, fragmented in to three groups to address the Municipal waste collection in Thimphu.

Greener Way currently is contracted to collect Municipal Waste in Thimphu. With 75% of Thromde (City) being catered by our hard working team, our collection team ensures the supports from every household by accepting only segregated waste before it’s being dumped in our Refuse Collection Vehicle. Thereby encouraging our people for waste segregation at source. Today, our collection schedule is styled based on two types (Wet waste and Dry Waste) of Municipal Waste Collection in Thimphu.

We also manage Thimphu’s Material Waste Recovery Plant, where all the dry waste is being dumped and screened for recovery before transporting the residual for landfill. Greener way have also started recycling waste plastics (recovered from waste stream) in to poles that can be best used for electric fencing.

In an exclusive interview with the CEO of the Greener Way, he said, “Development of entrepreneurship is not always spontaneous. It is very often affected by environmental factor such as economic, social, political, legal and cultural factors. Those factors may have both positive and negative influences on the emergence and development of entrepreneurship”. It is very enriching to learn about the entrepreneurial journey of a native successful entrepreneur karma Yonten and his venture the Greener Way.

Through intensive interview and field visit, I have known the entrepreneur well and the motives behind his successful venture. Moreover, Bhutan currently having a few entrepreneurs, it’s a great opportunity for the youth to come up with new and innovative ideas to start the business such as this. He also shared that to be a successful entrepreneur a person should be proficient, indomitable and passionate to take up any risk as an opportunity in undertaking such activities keeping in mind the customers’ demand, its impact to an environment and future scope of the business.

To undertake such assignment, I found it worth doing for it gives us an insights and first-hand experience of the entrepreneurial journey. This is an opportunity to explore and understand the current state of the entrepreneurship culture in Bhutan and its possible scopes. It is a life-time opportunity to have gotten to interact and learn about Karma Yonten as a person behind this successful venture of Greener Way. This has made me realized on the potentials of youth like me to be an employment creator, instead of employment seeker. The assignment is an eye-opening opportunity to explore and work on the business ideas.