Upcycling Marble Waste From Temple Construction Into Value-Added Handicrafts

Abstract

In stone clusters like Rajasthan, the temple construction industry in these areas generates roughly 20% to 30% waste of raw materials used during the cutting and shaping process of blocks. This material is not exactly waste, but is also not usable for the industry, which is why it is sold at a very cheap rate. This is either used in land levelling or in the foundation of the wall or eventually dumped onto unused land. Stone artefact manufacturers often purchase fresh stone directly from the mine for production purposes, which is at market price. The connection between the two industries is unstructured and there is no business model which is built around it. This project examines whether the gap between waste generated by temple construction and the market for handmade artefacts can be closed. Primary interviews were conducted with the temple construction company and multiple artefact vendors in Rajasthan to understand operational processes, waste generation, labour dependencies, and cost structures. Consumer surveys and interviews with home decor showroom owners were conducted to understand purchase behaviour and price sensitivity in the handmade artefacts market and home decor market. Based on this, we have built a startup model named "Second Cut” that sources the raw material from the temple industries, i.e., the waste, at a very low price, employs the artisans, and produces the artefacts based on the size of the raw material across spiritual, decorative and functional categories. The Van Westendorp analysis placed the acceptable price range at Rs. 3,000-5,000. The model generates a monthly operating profit of Rs 98,706 by selling the base capacity of 42 units per month at an operating profit margin of 47 per cent, with a payback period of only 2 months on an initial capital of Rs 1,99,600. The project also applies a SERVQUAL gap analysis to the customer journey, maps go-to-market channels across D2C, curated marketplace, and retail, and builds a customer profile showing that design ranks above sustainability as the primary purchase driver. The core finding is that the business is viable. The margin structure works because raw material costs are near zero, and the main operational risks lie in artisan availability and consistency of waste supply.