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It seems inspiration strikes when you least expect it. The compulsion to “do good” and contribute to the planet, can spring to mind in the most unlikely of circumstances.
At least, that’s what happened to Abhiudai Mishra, an Indian-born student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. The Udaipur Times reports that Mishra founded a start-up company called Mosa, to recycle glassware and bottles following inspiration after a night of partying.
Inspired by a broken bottle
Vancouver is Awesome explains, Mosa was created following a mishap while cleaning up after a house party. Mishra was picking up alcohol bottles after an evening partying with friends, when he dropped a bottle.
The glass bottle shattered on the floor. As Mishra swept up the glass, he wondered, "Where does this go after the bottle is broken?" After researching, Mishra learned that 77% of glass bottles, even those that are put in a recycling bin, end up in landfills after the glass breaks.
Mishra and his co-founder, Prishita Agarwal, started brainstorming how glass could be rescued from landfills and upcycled. They spent hours on Youtube, looking at ways to cut glass using materials like a lighter and ice. “"We used to sit in my apartment, five to six hours a day trying to figure out how exactly we can cut these bottles and make something out of them," Mishra told Vancouver is Awesome.
Recycled glass YVR
Once they learned how to neatly cut and create all sorts of new items from old glass, Mishra, Agarwal, and few other peers founded a start-up called Rescued Glass YVR.
The group browsed beach cleanups and food establishments to gather used glass bottles, which they turned into a variety of platters, candles, glasses, and other items in their microfactory.
When they peddled these items to local businesses, they got positive feedback. "It turns out that people were really enjoying it," explains Mishra. "They like the product. They like the process. They love the story."
Founding Mosa
The student start-up built a name for itself and grew in size, Richmond News shares. By the end of 2022, it had a team of nearly two dozen students and had already succeeded in rescuing more than 6,000 bottles. That’s when Rescued Glass YVR decided to rebrand and come back bigger.
The business renamed themselves Mosa. Mishra tells Vancouver is Awesome, "In those house parties the alcohol that we were drinking was Mosa. The name really helps us when we are thinking about larger conversations.”
“It's always important that you remember where you're coming from and where the process of this entire idea even started," he elaborates.
In addition to producing beautiful decor items and saving glass from landfills, Mosa has inspired other Vancouverites to get involved in making the world a better place. Michael Jin, a member of the Mosa team shared that "People genuinely care and it almost activates a piece of them that wants to make a difference and wants to make a change," he says.
According to Richmond News, glass manufacturing is responsible for 86 million tons of carbon emissions yearly, in addition to the garbage glass that ends up in landfills. Mosa is turning trash to treasure, and inspiring others to do so as well. All because of a little inspiration after a college party.
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