How we started:
While participating in the Gandhi Fellowship, Jabir Karat was deeply affected by the waste crisis in India and the poor working conditions of ragpickers. From then on, he embarked on a journey and worked as a rag picker to understand Waste management and the bigger problems associated with it. Realizing it was a larger and global problem, he decided to spend his lifetime tackling the Waste crisis and founded Green Worms in early 2014 as a solution to the waste crisis and to empower marginalised communities.

Humble beginnings:
After returning to his home state, Jabir Karat started a one-person company with a
small workforce managing 300 kgs of Waste per day. Over the course of a year of operations, he observed that the majority of the women workers are from low-income communities. He recognized their commitment to the cause and their efficiency and self-management skills, leading to a realization in 2016 that providing women with dignified jobs could not only address the waste crisis but also reduce poverty. This led to a shift in focus towards streamlining women as the primary workforce, while also ensuring they were provided with dignified jobs, fair wages, and safe working conditions.

Enabling Micro-Entrepreneurship, beyond Wages:
In the year 2018, we again had a Eureka Moment about how we can uplift Women to earn beyond minimum wages and make them Entrepreneurial. In Kerala, a friendly policy for Self Help Groups already existed called Kudumbashree. Leveraging the policy, we started collaborations with Village level administrations and engaged local women to become Waste-prenuers to collect the waste while Green Worms ensured them minimum guaranteed income. This move has been game-changing and we were able to create more impact while easily scaling our operations to provide waste management solutions to many villages.

Plastics within Economy and Out of Oceans.
In 2020, we realised that we are operating in coastal regions which are more vulnerable to plastic pollution. Coastal communities are more vulnerable to the impacts of plastic pollution and climate change. This led to us focusing our operations in coastal regions and starting operations in Lakshadweep Islands and Andaman Islands. We also became a certified Ocean-bound plastics collector.

Ambition – Go-To Company for Circular Economy Transitions
In the year 2022, we realized the need for a Circular economy transition by which brands and producers needed to use recycled plastic instead of virgin materials. We decided to fast-forward this transition by working with brands and started offering circular economy solutions and Extended Producer responsibility compliance for various FMCG brands.