An 18-year-old start-up founder in India, Udit Singhal, has been named by the United Nations as part of the list of 2020 Class of Young Leaders for Sustainable Development Goals. This is the highest-profile recognition opportunity at the world body for youngsters who are leading efforts to combat the world’s most pressing issues.

Udit founded a zero-waste ecosystem Glass2Sand to tackle the growing menace of glass waste in Delhi. This company prevents glass bottles from reaching landfills where they won’t decompose for a million years and are instead crushed into commercially valuable sand. His initiative of the zero-waste ecosystem has helped in preventing 8000 bottles from going into the landfills and has produced around 4,815 kilograms of high-grand silica sand. His valuable contributions to create sustainable living spaces have fetched him a position among 17 young leaders for SDGs.

The Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth said Singhal’s initiative has prevented empty glass bottles from getting dumped into landfills and turned it into sands, making it commercially viable. The statement by the UN envoy also said these bottles don’t decompose for a million years, referring to the significance of the teenager’s work.

“As a Young Leader for the SDGs, I will be an active agent of change. I hope to be able to encourage communities to embrace a better civic sense to create sustainable living spaces, like when mountain-high landfills are detonated,” Singhal said in the statement.

The Young Leaders for the SDGs initiative is organised on a biennial basis by the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth and is the office’s highest profile recognition opportunity for young people who are leading efforts to combat the world’s most pressing issues and whose leadership is catalysing the achievement of the SDGs.

“As the UN marks its 75th anniversary during unprecedented times, the 2020 Young Leaders for the SDGs are a clear example of how young people are leading the way in shaping a more sustainable and inclusive future for all,” the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth Jayathma Wickramanayake said. The young leaders, between the ages of 18 and 29 years old, represent the diverse voices of young people from every region of the world and are collectively responsible for activating millions of young people in support of the SDGs.

The 2020 Class of 17 Young Leaders includes representatives from Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Ireland, Liberia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Senegal, Turkey, Uganda and the United States.