One thing India has never run short of is innovators. While the country faces a huge mounting problem of waste management, there are many people who have shown the world how one man’s trash can truly be another’s treasure.

Here are 5 innovators who have started businesses that are tackling the problem of waste by converting it into products of utility.

1. Madhuri Balodi’s Kavi The Poetry-Art Project Born out of the need to show people how you can convert your glass bottles into items of utility, Madhuri and Amit Singh started the business. So far, they have converted 7 lakh glass bottles into lamps, drinkware, planters etc.

2. Neli Chachea’s husk dolls Neli grew up in a sleepy village in Manipur playing in husks (the dry outer covering of some fruits and seeds like maize and coconut that is usually thrown away as waste) not knowing that the same husk will change her life one day. She makes stunning dolls using discarded silk and maize husks, making Rs 45,000 a month from sales.

3. Angeline Babu and Rituparna Das’ Silver Nut Tree Failing to explain the meaning of the word recycle to their kids, Angeline Babu and Rituparna Das decided to create real-life examples. They started their business working with various discarded materials like rubber tubes, bottle caps, and CDs, transforming “trash” into remarkable, eco-friendly jewellery and handicrafts.

4. K Sankar and Senthil Sankar’s EcoLine Father-son duo, K Sankar and Senthil Sankar with their business EcoLine have truly defined the meaning of trash to treasure. Together the duo has not only recycled 15 lakhs of PET bottles into jackets, blazers, T-shirts, and bottoms while making a profit of Rs 12 crore per annum.

5. Madhu Kargund’s coconut waste business Tired of his 9 to 5 in Bengaluru, Madhu wanted to return to his roots — farming. Since he has grown up seeing the hardships of coconut farmers, he wanted to do something to support them.

The result was a zero-waste business Tengin, where he not only uses the obvious parts such as the oil and flesh of the fruit but parts such as shell and husk that are otherwise considered waste.