When 30-year-old Siddharth AK ran out of money to test the recycled plastic he wanted to turn into furniture, he began selling his belongings. His late mother’s mixer-grinder went to pay for a flexural test, her fridge for a tensile test, and the cot and sofa for a fire-retardancy test. Then went the television, tabletop, stove and even his Nike shoes. The sacrifice was driven by a simple idea: to turn discarded plastic into something useful. Today, his Kerala-based venture, Carbon and Whale, transforms plastic waste into outdoor furniture, bus shelters and vending carts. Its benches have found buyers in Kochi Metro, Kochi Smart Mission Limited (CSML) and Lulu Mall in Thiruvananthapuram. “All of this I did to pay tribute to my mother’s memory. She taught me a lot about sustainable living,” says Siddharth.
With a team of eight, the company has repurposed 85,000 kg of plastic waste, according to Siddharth. It has received an R&D grant from Hindustan Unilever and been incubated at T-Hub and IIM Bangalore. Beyond recycling, Siddharth wants to create livelihoods in the communities where the waste is collected. “We try to place our benches and carts in the same localities from where we collect the plastic,” he says. “The idea is to return something useful to people who help us source the waste.”
The process begins with local waste vendors who segregate, wash and shred discarded plastic. Carbon and Whale uses its own formulation to turn the material into durable planks, which are then fabricated into products. The company also develops its own machines and moulds, testing and refining the material at CIPET in Kochi. For Siddharth, sustainability must make business sense. Plastic costing Rs 60 per kg, he says, can be converted into a finished product weighing 10 kg and sold for Rs 12,000. “I come from a business background. I know that, if this has to work, it has to be commercially viable.”
The idea took shape at Shanghumugham Beach in Thiruvananthapuram, where Siddharth had cleaned up litter as a child. After his mother’s death, he returned to the beach and began picking up trash again. The following day, he noticed that waste he had put in a bin had been taken out. “I thought, this is ridiculous. We keep cleaning up, but the waste keeps coming back. Someone has to find a way to deal with it.”
His search led him to CIPET, where he met Suraj Verma, a polymer science professor who later left his job to join Carbon and Whale as chief technology officer. “I had no technical knowledge of the material. I had the idea, but I needed people who understood the science to help me make it work,” Siddharth says. In the early days, he handled everything from product design and fabrication to sourcing, finance and sales. Convincing buyers was equally difficult. When Kochi Metro’s director said there was neither interest nor budget for the benches, Siddharth offered to install them for free. “I told them, ‘If they work, we can think of future business.’”
Media coverage of the installation helped him secure an order from CSML, which he then used to pitch a paid deal to Kochi Metro. “I got one credible buyer on board and used that sale to convince the next,” he says. Siddharth is in no hurry to expand simply for the sake of growth. His immediate priority is to make a difference in Kerala before taking the model to Bengaluru and Dubai. “People often think a startup has to keep expanding, entering new markets and growing bigger. That is not our priority,” he says. “We are trying to clean up Kochi. If we cannot make a difference in the place where we work, what is the point of expanding?”
The journey has involved financial hardship, including periods when Siddharth could not afford electricity. Yet he remains undeterred. For him, the business is both a practical response to plastic waste and a tribute to his mother’s lessons in sustainable living. “I have a very thick skin,” he says. “If I want something, I will do it.”