“Be it plastic, biodegradable waste or polythene — I saw how it was degrading our environment.”

On a cold winter morning in Kulgam, South Kashmir, Mohammad Aamir Khan stood beside a roadside heap of uncollected garbage. It wasn’t the first time he had seen plastic and food waste rotting in the open — but something about that moment stayed with him. It was the kind of quiet discomfort that grows inside you until you decide you can no longer ignore it.

Years later, this very discomfort would drive Aamir to start a movement—one that turns trash into jobs, plastic into thread, and waste into wealth.

At just 30, Aamir has emerged as one of Jammu and Kashmir’s most innovative environmental entrepreneurs. From composting biodegradable waste to building a website that sells recycled plastic, his efforts are reshaping how rural communities view waste. More than 4,000 households are now part of his decentralised waste management model. Farmers are using his compost. Locals are earning money from discarded plastic. And people across South Kashmir are realising that sustainability can begin right at their doorstep.

But this story, like most that matter, begins long before the compost piles and government MoUs. It starts with a student, a setback, and an idea that wouldn’t let go.

From civil services dreams to a mission for sustainability

Aamir grew up in Agroo Devsar, a village in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district. After earning his engineering degree from a college in Bangalore in 2017, he set his sights on the UPSC Civil Services Examination — a dream that many young Indians chase with fierce determination.

“I could not clear it by a narrow margin,” he says. “But what I gained from the preparation was much more than just exam knowledge. It gave me deep insight into environment-related issues and instilled in me a desire to work for sustainability.”

Even as he studied, Aamir found himself increasingly disturbed by what he saw around him. Uncollected household waste, polythene bags clogging drains, plastic littering the streets — it was everywhere.

“Be it plastic, biodegradable waste or polythene — I saw how it was degrading our environment,” he recalls. “I became obsessed with understanding how other parts of the world managed waste and what solutions could work in our local context.”

While others looked away, Aamir leaned in. He began to read about grassroots models, composting systems, and decentralised waste collection. The seed of an idea had been planted — one that would slowly take root in the years to come.

A fellowship that changed everything

In 2022, while scrolling through social media, Aamir came across a fellowship opportunity under the Clinton Foundation’s Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U). It called for proposals centred on sustainable, ground-level solutions — and Aamir, now deeply committed to tackling waste, decided to apply.

His idea was........

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