RAWAIR
RAWAIR
RAWAIR increases air quality in the home and wider environment by enabling individual Indian households to make their own efficient, low pollution fuel using waste rice straw that would normally be uncontrollably burnt, creating massive air pollution.
India is the largest producer and exporter of rice in the world. The rice straw is a waste by-product that needs to be removed quickly before the fields can be replanted. Due to the expensive machinery and limited commercial demand, farmers have very little choice other than to burn the straw in the fields. The annual burning of over 12,000,000 tones of this rice straw is a massive contributor to air pollution; 6 out of 10 of the most polluted cities in the world are close to the rice producing areas.
RAWAIR is an affordable briquette maker for each household that uses waste rice straw to produce efficient biomass fuel for their cooking and heating. Within the 20 day time window that the farmer would normally take to burn the straw, using RAWAIR a single family can produce enough briquettes to last the whole year. This prevents farmers burning the waste straw, saves time in collecting firewood and reduces pollution in the household. RAWAIR is a local solution where farmers and households across India can work together to benefit themselves, local communities and the wider environment.
Other Benefits of RAWAIR:
-
Local Environment
RAWAIR takes the pressure off the local environment. Before RAWAIR families would use the local forest for fuel in the cooking and heating. RAWAIR uses an alternative fuel sources to firewood, which allows the local ecosystem and environment to recover from years of deforestation.
-
Empowerment
Throughout rural India, it is the women’s and children’s jobs to collect the fuel for the cooking, this can happen daily. Using RAWAIR’s briquette maker it allows the fuel for the whole year to be gathered within a 20 day period. This frees up the women’s and children’s time for them to undertake other work or go to school.
-
Local Economy
RAWAIR frees up women’s time from collecting firewood and allows them to go to work if they want. It means that they can bring in another income into the home and this helps the local economy. Freeing up time helps to pull the village and families out of poverty.
