Table of Contents

Executive summary ........................................................................................................................... 1

Firm Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 2
Personal Story ................................................................................................................................... 2
Industry analysis................................................................................................................................ 3
Business activities and strategy ......................................................................................................... 4
Critical Success factors ...................................................................................................................... 4
Challenges faced by GARBAGEMAN ................................................................................................... 4
Opportunities for GARBAGEMAN....................................................................................................... 5
Business Canvas Model ..................................................................................................................... 6
Conclusion......................................................................................................................................... 6
Sources of Information ...................................................................................................................... 7
References ........................................................................................................................................ 7
Appenidx ........................................................................................................................................... 8
 Executive summary

The following case is about GARBAGEMAN which is a waste management company located
in Bangladesh. We gathered information from our primary source Mr. Makhjanul Islam
Prangon who is the chief marketing officer for the company and also secondary sources. From
the interview and other sources we got insights about the firm, how it all started the industry
they operate in, their business activities and strategies, their success factors and challenges they
had to face, opportunities the firm came across and their business model canvas. While
exploring this social business we have gained a lot of knowledge about entrepreneurship being
both innovative and looking after the society we live in.

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 GARBAGEMAN
Tagline: Waste to Worth

Firm Introduction

GARBAGEMAN started off in February of 2018 as a waste management company. Their

location is: Address : House 64 , Panna Plaza, Shah Kabir Mazar Road,Dokkhinkhan,Sector 6
Uttara Dhaka, Bangladesh 1230.

They collect organic waste from Dhaka city and recycle it into organic fertilizer. This particular
sector of their social business is called Regen Vermi compost. They also provide zero waste
consultancy to organizations and communities. Their current clients are BAT, UNDP,
Mymensingh cantonment. They have only one branch at the moment with 12 employees. They
are working on their app which is to be launched in November. The app shall make it easier to
collect waste from door to door and also motivate people to litter less.

Personal Story

Mr Fahim Uddin the CEO an architect was concerned about people littering on the streets and
no one cleaning it up. He graduated from NSU and wanted to bring forth something that would
bring a change in the society. He saw the waste as a treasure and thought about if they could
be recycled and put to good use. In July of 2017 Mr. Fahim along with the project initiator and
chief marketing officer Mr. Makhjanul Islam Prangon then a BBA student of NSU started the
project by collecting waste and recycling them into fertilizers in the rooftop of their houses.
The initial gamble paid off as fertilizers turned out to be organic as they planned it to be. They
had a lot of hurdles ahead of them as one of them was a fresh graduate looking at career options
another still studying to get hold of a degree. Sourcing their funds was one of the many hurdles
they had to go through. They stuck to their determination of seeing a clean Dhaka and to
provide something back to this beautiful city. They pitched their idea in the STARTUP
Bangladesh hosted by the ICT ministry and hit jackpot right away with being given a grant of
Tk 10 lakh. They used this fund to start the firm and from there onwards have come a long
way.

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 Industry analysis

As we already know that Bangladesh is one of the most polluted country in the world. But there
has been some developments in Bangladesh to improve waste management, especially in the
cities. In Dhaka, Dhaka City Corporation with support of Japan International Corporation
Agency (JICA) has a plan to manage the solid waste in Dhaka. For instance, Social Business
Enterprise Waste Concern, has sprung up to tackle the municipal waste accumulation problem
through working with the households. UNICEF has also taken some recycling programs and
waste management with the help of city corporations and municipalities. However, currently,
there are still insufficient incentives to improve the standard of waste management across all
relevant sectors, especially for industrial waste and medical waste. As we can see the all waste
management initiatives has been taken from the government sector there is no such private
initiative like this. So now we can say that there are no competition at the moment as there
except UNICEF as they are doing recycling programme as well. Except UNICEF there are no
other players involved in the market. GARBAGEMAN are the first from the private sector to
take the initiative to collect and recycle waste. The city corporation only used to collect the
waste and dump them in landfills. The industry had no proper waste management system.

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 Business activities and strategy

Primary business activities- The main activity of the business is to collect waste, then recycle
them and convert into organic fertilizers. They also providing zero waste consultancy through
which they provide insights about reducing, reusing and recycling waste and how much
beneficial it is for the environment.

Key resources- The key resources for the business is the waste they collect and also the
equipment and tools they require in order to carry out the process of recycling.

Strategy- Creating awareness online through their post and providing face to face consultations
with various organizations and also in seminars.

Critical Success factors

First movers in the market. Many foreign companies are eager to invest in this sector. They
have collaborated with the ICT ministry. They also have recently collaborated with TUDelft
(Delft University of Technology) one of the leading university in Netherlands along with
DELTAP project. YGAP Bangladesh also signed an agreement with GARBAGEMAN. YGAP
has become the incubating partner of GARBAGEMAN. GARBAGEMAN also singed MOU
with Joy Technologies. At the moment, they are working on their app which will be launched
in November. They also have formed partnership with YY Goshti which is part of Yunus
Center.

Challenges faced by GARBAGEMAN

GARBAGEMAN is a social business their aim is to convert the wastage into a useful resource.
This type of venture is still a new idea in our society so many people aren’t aware of it. Every
year millions of million wastage produce in Bangladesh. GARBAGEMAN collect that waste
from certain areas and process that waste and make useful products such as organic fertilizers.
Local politician and councillor member make 4.5 million takas of business out of this garbage.
(Prothom Alo, 2019) So, GARBAGEMAN faced a lot of difficulties to collect waste from the
local people.

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Since the idea of collecting organic waste and make them into organic fertilizer is a new social
business idea in context of Bangladesh. People of Bangladesh are not aware of this kind of
business. Therefore, GARBAGEMAN faced many difficulties to collect their raw material and
selling the organic fertilizer to their customers.

At the primary stage of GARBAGEMAN faced financial problem to meet their needs. To
reproduce the garbage into useful resources and to make the process smoother the need
machineries, man power, good transportation system. This huge amount of money cannot be
invested by the entrepreneur at the primary stage. So, the pitch their unique social business idea
to STARTUP Bangladesh by ICT division. STARTUP Bangladesh helped them financially.
But now they need more funding to expand their activities.

Opportunities for GARBAGEMAN

Since GARBAGEMAN are the first movers in this industry the opportunities are vast for them.
According to Mr Makhjanul Islam Prangon the service and product they offer isn’t like any
other available. They are providing an easy way for people to remove their waste, keeping the
environment and society neat, clean and tidy and also giving them back organic fertilizers
which is a very suitable for growth of plant and vegetation. This type of social business is the
very first of its kind in Bangladesh and with their app soon to be launched it’ll make it even
easier as waste will be collected from door to door and people can also avail their fertilizers
from the app and also consultation on how to reduce reuse and recycle.

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 Business Canvas Model
Key Partners Key Activities Value Customer Customer
Proposition Relationships Segments
Human resources Collecting waste
Waste to B2B Consumer Urban gardeners
Recycling
worth consultancy
Providing
Consultancy

Key Resources Channels

Waste Online

Cost Structure Revenue Streams

Employee salaries Fertilizers and consultancy
Production plant management and equipment

Conclusion

From this report we get insights how an entrepreneur starts a business and every entrepreneur
has their own story to share. Also this report sheds light for the need of such businesses like
GARBAGEMAN, they might be a social business but their main aim is to keep the
environment clean while giving back something to the people helping in the cause.

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 Sources of Information

We gathered information from two types of sources. They are:

Primary Source: Mr. Makhjanul Islam Prangon (Chief Marketing Officer). We took his
interview and received first-hand information and upon departure we collected his visiting card.

Secondary Source: We gathered various information regarding GARBAGEMAN and other

related things necessary for the case from various websites such as their facebook page,
Prothom Alo and the financial express. All the links to the sources have been provided in the
reference section.

References

1.Facebook page of GARBAGEMAN: https://www.facebook.com/garbagemanbd/

2. Sufi, T.(2019, October 26). How GARBAGEMAN turning Dhaka’s waste into resources.
Retrieved from https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/views/analysis/how-garbageman-turning-
dhakas-waste-into-resources-
1563553091?fbclid=IwAR1IAuHQL9ktydkV4CJpjpcoZ_M_Rp_4U3vTK8ls-gxVg6BwYSw9RsOFnmY

3. Rahman,S., Akhter, N., Ahmed, M.(2019, October 13) Business of Tk 450 crore from waste in the
capital.Retrieved from
https://www.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/article/1618936/%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%9
C%E0%A6%A7%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%80%E0%A6%A4%E0%A7%87-
%E0%A7%AA%E0%A7%AB%E0%A7%A6-
%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%9F%E0%A6%BF-
%E0%A6%9F%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0-

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%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%9F%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BE-
%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A3%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%9C%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6
%AF?fbclid=IwAR0Gyaf_CqZozgi-cCA1aT_AIvbAb62Vxp2YyiKeBXA6fVB61yWUcUFh7HQ

4. Jui, U.M.(2019, October 19).A smart solution to garbage disposal. Retrieved from
https://tbsnews.net/environment/smart-solution-garbage-
disposal?fbclid=IwAR2dpDtL8gYoNxDcfE7u4u-Vmlta6cXLZSm_NM_B4vzcx-
6T3WCS12w5ZFU#.Xa1Zm5dOWns.facebook

Appenidx

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