Poonam Kasturi Who Made Daily Dump A Household Name Schools Shark Tank India 2 Judges!

It’s so dirty. 

Ah, it stinks. 

The very thought of handling it repulses me.

But Poonam Bir Kasturi is not put off by such reactions. She smiles and carries on with her mission, undeterred by her detractors.

Who is Poonam Kasturi?

An industrial designer by profession, Poonam is also an innovator, facilitator, educator, and mentor. She is a serial entrepreneur who founded Industry Craft Company and Srishti School of Arts, Design and Technology before setting up her latest venture – the Daily Dump. Concerned about the environmental hazards from ever-expanding landfills and rising mountains of garbage, she founded the Daily Dump in 2006 which designs and develops composters for home and community usage.

This multiple award-winning entrepreneur recently appeared in an episode of Shark Tank season 2 and zapped the sharks with her beautifully designed composters which she has very cleverly named Khamba, Terra Bite, and Gobble.

Poonam Kasturi was assertive in speech yet delighted everyone with her tongue-in-cheek, witty rejoinders. She not only schooled the sharks but also managed to roast some of them, albeit in an unoffensive way.

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While Namita Thapar of Emcure Pharma was telling the other sharks that Poonam had been awarded by the Prime Minister at a meeting of women entrepreneurs at Niti Ayog, she commented, ‘Mai yaha aayi hu kyoki mere ko award nahi, paisa chahiye (i am here because I need money, not awards), evoking peals of laughter.

As Vineeta Singh (founder of Sugar Cosmetics) viewed the packet of reetha powder launched by Poonam as a substitute for chemical detergents, Poonam cheekily remarked, ‘Chemicals are harmful…aap to jante hain, aap to usi me kaam karte hain (you know that because you work with chemicals only).

She laughingly told Vineeta that she was not going to talk about her products to people like Aman Gupta who would come nowhere near to understanding the importance of waste management because he appeared to believe that all kitchen waste was grimy and stinking.

“People don’t want to get their hands dirty, and #Terrabite ensures this does not happen. It is like any other home appliance, and everyone can benefit from it,” says Poonam Bir Kasturi.@Compostwali#StartUp #Entrepreneurs #WasteManagement #Composting #Sustainability #Bengaluru pic.twitter.com/ujndLD7ABA

— The Better India (@thebetterindia) January 17, 2023

Even Anupam Mittal, popular among his fellow sharks as Mr-know-it-all couldn’t escape being corrected by her on facts related to the moisture content in vegetable waste making Namita Thapar erupt in jest, ‘aap ne to har shark ki class le li (you’ve taught a lesson to the sharks).’

A confident and visionary entrepreneur

Unlike many other pitchers, Poonam Kasturi wasn’t intimidated by the aura of highly successful business leaders before her and confidently stuck to her points. Peeyush Bansal of LensKart even called her business pitch ‘one of the most impressive’ during this season.

Does the idea of composting kitchen waste appeal to you also or you would still say, ‘it’s not our job. We pay taxes to the government so why should we sully our hands?’

But why should it be so? ‘We should reimagine waste as a resource, and not something that needs to be sent to the landfills’, Poonam Kasturi believes.

https://twitter.com/KenyaCIC/status/1614948995389956097?s=20&t=4obFZNFImxp0MuRcs-5agg

The environment belongs to all of us, the earth belongs to all of us, and the responsibility to keep it clean also rests with us. If a small effort on our part can reduce the humongous amount of wet waste landing in landfills and the emission of environmentally hazardous methane gas while it decomposes then why not? Moreover, if we pay taxes to the government to keep the surroundings clean then isn’t it all the more important to help reduce the stress on public waste management systems? Besides, why spend money to buy expensive fertilizer from the market when we can make compost from our household waste?

As a keen terrace gardener and a sensible, responsible citizen, I have also started segregating wet and dry waste and converting kitchen and garden waste into nutritious compost for my plants.

As the immensely inspirational Poonam Kasturi and Namita Thapar exhorted viewers to ‘be the change you want to see.’ Initially, it may appear to be a daunting task but every little effort takes us one step closer to a ‘zero waste lifestyle’. So let’s break the reluctance, demolish the mental blocks, and discover the black gold hidden in the waste we carelessly throw away. Let’s try to be mindful consumers and thus contribute to sustainable development and leave a better, safer, and healthier world for our future generations.

Image source: YouTube

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