Aakash Hingu’s ExJunk, Free App to sell household junk

Taking a cue from the Swachh Bharat movement initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a young IIT Mandi alumnus, Aakash Hingu, has come out with an innovative way to dispose scrap. He also reasons out why Chandigarh has lost in the race for Smart City. The idea is to “make recycling of scrap a habit,” says this 24-year-old, whose brainchild ExJunk, a free online application, provides doorstep service to sell household junk – old newspapers, refrigerators, metallic items et al.

Common Vision

This software engineer, who hails from Surat, says Gujarat is not the only common link he has with Modi. It is also similar ideologies of conjuring clean surroundings that the two share. “My initiative to boost cleanliness and zero waste concept in tricity is certainly inspired by Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan. I am a huge Modi fan,” smiles Hingu.

Recounting his metamorphosis from a clutter-spreading kid to a cleanliness freak, he adds, “Eventually, realisation donned that waste can be an asset that can be reused and recycled.”

Smart City

According to Hingu, not having adequate mechanisms to deal with scrap is one of the reasons why Chandigarh missed grabbing the Smart City title. “As compared to southern states, northern part of India is still oblivious of the value of recycling used items.”

He shared that garnering the support of young brigade is indispensable for the materialisation of any novel plan and on those lines, “I plan to deliver seminars in various schools in tricity to enlighten students about disposing scrap wisely.”

Goodbye raddiwala

Aakash says with scrap service being available online, the “dependency on raddiwalas would be the thing of past.” He shared that under the ambit of the new venture, people would be “paid more than the usual market rate for scrap.”

Talking about the kind of response he expects from city people for his venture, he observes, “I find Chandigarh is a very good city for start-up ventures. People here are receptive to new ideas.”