Purpose – The objective of this paper is to qualitatively assess environmental issues concerning fly‐ash, generated from thermal power plants of India. The alternate use of fly‐ash as raw material in the manufacture of pavement bricks and other construction materials is known, but there are few fabrication and assembling units that cater the needs of manufacture of fly‐ash bricks in commercial scale. This paper aims to highlight one such fabrication unit, Naldehra Building Centre (NBC) situated at Faridabad, Haryana, India and the limitations with such entrepreneurship while addressing societal issues of child labour and environmental issues with dispose of fly‐ash.Design/methodology/approach – This research is largely based on a one‐to‐one meeting the author had with the entrepreneur, Mr Ajay Singh (AS) at his office premises, Faridabad India, in the month of July 2010. The interactions include relevant data collection on the fabrication and assembling business opportunities and global solid waste‐relate...