The rapidly growing green household cleaning products market currently comprises 10-20% of total market share, and is expected to reach $28B by 2024. While more expensive than traditional cleaners, these effective eco-products are made from plant-derived ingredients and have a smaller carbon footprint. That’s an improvement, and young consumers are willing to pay more for products free from toxic chemicals. But according to Sunny Bhasin, whose company Renew Techchnologies, Ltd manufactures CYCLE, the world's first recycled household cleaners, we can do even better.
Sunny Bhasin is the founder of CYCLE, which makes green household cleaning products out of recycled ... [+]
CYCLE manufactures everyday household cleaning products – such as a toilet bowl cleaner, bathroom cleaner, and all-purpose cleaner – from nothing but all-natural soap, citric acid, oil-based fragrance, derived organic acids, pure water and waste water. The base of CYCLE products is, in fact, one of the byproducts of biological wastewater treatment facilities, known as biosolids. Usually, biosolids are considered a worthless byproduct of treating wastewater, and disposal is both expensive and cumbersome. But with CYCLE, Renew Tech has figured out how to recycle these biosolids and turn them into your everyday green household cleaners.
In addition to running CYCLE, for over 25 years Bhasin has been designing and building facilities that create clean water. The clean water business encompasses wastewater treatment from municipal and industrial sources. Renew Tech separates the waste from the water. “One of my favorite ways of describing what we do is telling people that if it flows and stinks, think of us,” says Bhasin. His company has worked on everything from small projects that help villages with a few hundred people up to large projects for cities such as Budapest. On the industrial front, they have designed and built facilities for many industries, including paper, food, pharma, oil and gas, chemical, and automotive.
With CYCLE, Bhasin and his team figured out how to harness the wastewater treatment industry’s biggest unused byproduct, biosolids. Turning biosolids into green household cleaners not only gets rid of part of the waste from water treatment plants, but also creates an effective all-natural product. And any biological wastewater facility can harness this same process, anywhere in the world. “The era of take, make, waste is over. With CYCLE, I get to do my part to build a sustainable future for generations to follow. This has a lot of value and meaning for me,” says Bhasin.
Bhasin's sister Jyoti, who died of cancer, inspired him to create green household cleaning products. ... [+]
Bhasin reports that he discovered his life purpose “from failure.” After receiving a BS in environmental engineering in the US, he joined a Swiss company in 1993. But that company was liquidated just three years later and Bhasin was laid off. He decided to leap into wastewater treatment.
Then, in 2006, his sister Jyoti was diagnosed with breast cancer. Once while visiting his sister in London, Bhasin found Jyoti throwing out all her traditional household cleaning products. Already his sister had given up meat, sugar, alcohol, and any food that wasn’t natural. When Bhasin asked Jyoti why she was doing this, Jyoti explained that typical household cleaners are filled with toxic chemicals.
“This was an eye-opening moment for me,” says Bhasin. He decided then to harness his wastewater treatment plant’s biosolids by repurposing them into all-natural, green cleaning products. Renew Tech’s chief chemist, Vera, who had been cleaning her house with vinegar for years, helped make this vision a reality, bringing CYCLE to life.
Building an enduring organization is challenging, Bhasin says. It requires traveling down uncharted paths and trying to figure things out along the way. But he loves what he does every day, creating technologies to treat wastewater and bringing to market efficacious, sustainable recycled cleaners. “The joy I get from people appreciating our work and the pride I have when we, as a team, feel we have done our bit to make the world a better place is something I cherish,” Bhasin says.
For people looking to tap into their life purpose, Bhasin has this advice. “Do something you love, not something you just want to achieve. And don’t just be hungry for it, you’d better be starving for it. The rest will fall into place sooner or later.”
