BENGALURU : A cabinet with window shutters for doors, a rug made from water hyacinth, baskets made from reed grass, storage boxes made from logs of wood, a lampshade made from banana fibres... A newly-opened store in Bengaluru is proving that one man's trash really becomes another man's treasure.
Inaugurated last Friday, this is Art Etc's second outlet in India (after Pune) and its first in the city.
The idea, say store owners Maya Rao and Narendra Sachar, is to prevent excessive waste from clogging landfills and repurposing them instead. “In upcycling, the form of the waste item doesn't change like it does in recycling. For example, instead of processing plastic, we paint it and incorporate it into an ornamental piece,” explains Rao.
Take for example, the jute and water hyacinth rug. Instead of discarding the hyacinth, the plant is removed from the water body it inhabits, is de-weeded, dried, the leaves are chopped and finally, single strands of the plant are dried and woven into a plait-like design for the rug.
Rao points to another clock in the store and we soon learn it is actually a timeless artefact. The clock's dial is actually a LP record from 1914 with Billy Williams' song Call Me Early In The Morning. The couple has collaborated with artisans across India for more such products.
The USP of such products lies in the exclusivity of them, since they aren't mass produced, says Shailaja Rangarajan, founder of Rimagined, an online store launched in 2016, which also sells upcycled products. Besides the products on the website, some people have even reached out to Rangarajan with some custom-made requests, such as turning a rusted old metal trunk into a new storage space, giving a broken stool a new look, etc.
For Brinda Sridhar (name changed on request), one of Rangarajan's customers, upcycling helped in cherishing a part of her mother, who she lost last year. While some Sridhar's mother's nightclothes and kurtas were given away to old age homes, the others were upcycled into keepsakes. "My daughter shared a close bond with her grandmother and now, she has a blue duvet made from some of those clothes and my sister and I have cushion covers. We each have a part of my mother close to us,” she says.
The trend, however, is not exactly new, says Rangarajan. While it existed on an individual level before, it is starting to go commercial, with Rangarajan receiving 60 orders a month, barring the slow months of April to June, where she receives 30 orders. “People know what upcycling is. The challenge lies in changing their mindset about buying products that have been repurposed from waste. It might take us a year or two to change this,” she says.
For some, price may be a deterrent too. At Art Etc, the most popular products are glass bottles decorated with pop culture figures, which retail within Rs 1,000, (which will be available in their Bengaluru outlet soon). “Some might argue that the rugs (which retail for around Rs 7,000) are too expensive but don't mind spending the same on branded clothes. If the price is high, it's because a lot of effort has gone into making the product. It's up to all of us to contribute towards saving the environment by ensuring we generate lesser waste,” says Rao.