See how Sujay Patel helped India Recycles build a WhatsApp chatbot to scale stakeholder communication.
What is India Recycles and what did they need?
India Recycles is an NGO on a mission to turn textile waste into opportunity. By collecting pre-owned clothes and household goods from urban households, they redistribute them through low-cost slum sales across Gujarat, bringing access, dignity, and choice to underserved communities.
But their work goes beyond reuse. Through their upcycling brand Revibe, they train women from low-income communities to create new products from discarded fabric, offering them stable livelihoods and creative agency.
As the organization scaled, their WhatsApp inbox became a bottleneck. Responding to donation queries, volunteer sign-ups, and customer messages manually was costing them valuable time and limiting their ability to grow. They needed a simple, tech-enabled way to handle their communications more effectively.
Mission: To reduce textile waste and build dignified livelihoods through recycling, upcycling, and responsible reuse.
Focus Areas: Sustainable fashion, circular economy, women’s empowerment, waste reduction.
Location: Gujarat, India
Website: https://www.indiarecycles.org/
Fun Fact: India Recycles began as a swap circle among friends and has evolved into a movement that has hosted over 132 slum sales and reached 25,000+ customers.
Why did this project matter?
For small nonprofits, scaling outreach without burning out the team is tough. Without quick responses, potential donors or volunteers might lose interest.
With this project, India Recycles wanted to:
Automate everyday queries, so supporters get instant answers
Reduce drop-offs, by making donation and volunteer sign-ups easier
Focus more on mission-critical work, like running slum sales and expanding their Revibe upcycling initiative
How did our Skilled Volunteer help?
Sujay Patel, a Senior Software Engineer and social impact enthusiast, brought in his automation and cloud expertise to help India Recycles:
Develop a WhatsApp Chatbot: To automate conversations around donations, volunteer sign-ups, and customer inquiries.
Set up backend systems: Navigated Meta’s WhatsApp API process, ensuring smooth onboarding and verification.
Plan for growth: Built a flexible framework so the chatbot can evolve as India Recycles scales up its programs.
What will this project unlock?
By implementing this chatbot, India Recycles will be able to:
Save over 20 hours a week on manual responses- freeing up team time for on-ground operations and scaling their programs.
Reduce response times by up to 60%, improving supporter experience and increasing follow-through on donations and volunteer sign-ups.
Create a sustainable tech infrastructure for the future, so as they expand to more cities and communities, communication won’t become a bottleneck.
What did India Recycles have to say?
“For small organizations like ours, who can't afford to spend much on these verticals, it's really helpful to have someone helping us create ecosystems that will be beneficial in the long run. The expertise they bring is a big help.”
— Pranav Gupta, India Recycles
What did Sujay Patel have to offer?
Sujay is a seasoned tech consultant and software engineer with a passion for building scalable solutions that drive social impact. With experience at Caavo and Verve, and a background in Ruby, Go, AWS, and GCP, he’s spent 6+ years creating seamless user experiences for tech products.
Outside his day job, Sujay has worked on global social impact projects, from sustainability consulting to tech for nonprofits, through fellowships with Blue Chapter and the Global Governance Initiative.
He loves combining tech with purpose, and this project was the perfect match.
Skills
Automation & Chatbot Development
Cloud Software Engineering
API Integration & Workflow Automation
Structured Analysis & Problem Solving
Tech for Social Good
