Mayuree Aroonwaranon, the CEO and co-founder of GEPP Sa-Ard, Bangkok, Thailand is a sustainability champion in waste management.
Coming from a challenging background and growing up in the slums, Mayuree has always had a heart for her community. She was determined to make a positive impact but she didn’t know how until she chanced upon a news article that said every Thai person throws away 1.14 kg of rubbish a day.
She said she was clueless when she read the headline – was that a huge amount of rubbish?
From a mere casual inquiry and conversation with her friends, she and her friends, later co-founders, traveled down a rabbit hole to find answers and ended up starting a company!
A Data-Driven Approach to Solving Thailand’s Waste Management Problem
Founded in 2018, GEPP Sa-Ard tackles Thailand’s longstanding waste problem with a refreshing perspective.
In 2018, Thailand generated 27.8 million tons of plastic waste and the government estimates that at least 27% was improperly disposed of: people and businesses aren’t taking out their trash the way the government wishes they would.
GEPP focuses on a four-pronged strategy:
- Standardization: A systematic waste segregation methodology ensuring consistency and efficiency at the source.
- Behavioral Change: Actively promotes responsible waste practices.
- Data-Driven Operations: Real-time data analytics empower businesses to maximize resource recovery and minimize environmental impact.
- Transparency and Traceability: Complete transparency by allowing businesses to track their waste journey from source to final destination.
This comprehensive approach empowers businesses to go beyond “disposal” or “CSR activities.” Instead, GEPP Sa-Ard helps them integrate sustainable waste management into their daily operations, making it a seamless part of their work culture.
For the record, Thailand still uses 200 billion plastic bags per year so GEPP offers anyone who produces waste a chance to earn income by selling their recyclables, while also offering local governments data on their waste management. GEPP is active in 10 districts in Bangkok and it also started piloting a programme in Chiang Mai city.
GEPP partners with the Chiang Mai municipality—Thesaban Chiang Mai—to train waste producers in the district, including hotels, schools and local communities, to sort their waste and use GEPP’s platform. The platform is a web application, designed to be accessible to anyone within the programme’s operating area.
When a school, restaurant or household has sorted their recycling, they schedule a pick up via the web application and the city will send either a municipal waste pickup truck or a local private collector. The collector records the type and amount of waste as well as the price they pay the producer for their recycling. GEPP collects this data on its platform for analysis and shares it with the municipality.
During the pilot, GEPP provides this data to the municipality for free but as the programme gets off the ground, the company’s primary source of income will be selling this data to the city.
From Slum To Sustainablity
Mayuree says, ”After being in the oil and gas industry for 10 years, I decided to quit to figure out what I can do to become a solution to social problems. As a person, I enjoy solving problems and have my brain wired on the possibilities of making something better and more meaningful than it ever was yesterday. I like simple communications that help me connect with the people as well as concepts we see in everyday life. Learning can be done through many ways and from anyone and that’s what makes it so much fun.”
Mayuree’s story transcends language barriers with fluency in English, Thai and French. Her guiding principle – “When in doubt, do the right thing” – reflects her commitment to ethical change.
She draws inspiration from a multitude of sources, including her mother and the iconic Maya Angelou and even everyday individuals who are striving for a better life.
In this episode, she speaks about letting go of a lucrative career overseas to come home to Thailand. Her background as a change management consultant at Schlumberger with experience across Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Thailand and wanting to educate children for a better future made her perhaps the right person to traverse the complexities of Thailand’s waste management landscape.
It was certainly a period of adjustment as the messy, chaotic., bootstrapped world of startups was completely different from her orderly and resource-rich corporate experience.
When she is not managing her team, Mayuree finds solace in cooking Italian and Mexican cuisine. As a mother of a toddler, she cherishes moments spent with her son and enjoys nature walks. Her greatest source of pride lies in balancing the complexities of motherhood with the ever-changing environment of a startup. For anyone embarking on their own entrepreneurial adventure, she recommends Dr. Seuss’s timeless classic, “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” – a message that mirrors her spirit of optimism underlined with pragmatism.
Mayuree Aroonwaranon’s story is a story of paying it forward, overcoming adversity and banking on experiences and strengths to create change for the next generation of Thais. As GEPP Sa-Ard continues its journey, one can only be inspired by Mayuree’s commitment to building a more sustainable future for Thailand and perhaps the world.