BENGALURU: Among the biggest issues that this city has been grappling with over the last few decades, solid waste disposal sits at the prime spot. While the issue is largely institutional, and due to a lack of effective garbage disposal policy, a few eco-conscious entrepreneurs in the city have taken matters into their own hands, hoping to make small changes that would help fight the crisis.
A result of which, several start-ups and collectives are now re-purposing and up-cycling waste materials to create sustainable fashion and home décor products.
Launched early last month, Desh Ka Bag is a collective of social entrepreneurs, non-profit organisations and firms engaged in solid waste management that aims to tackle the problem of single-use plastics in the city.
The initiative offers to carry bags made out of up-cycled textile waste, which is not only reusable but also trackable and traceable offering an incentive to consumers for reusing the bags, through a tracking system and buy-back options.
“We wanted to tackle the problem of single-use plastic, starting with plastic bags. Most street vendors still rely on them despite the plastic ban, because they don’t have a good alternative to switch to. So we wanted to bring out bags which can remain in circulation for a long time,” says Mrudula, one of the entrepreneurs involved in the effort.
Reimagined is a city-based start-up that has been the recipient of numerous awards for its work up-cycling and re-purposing waste material. “We don’t look at waste as waste but as a resource. There’s lots of both pre-and post-consumer waste that gets dumped and burned or otherwise discarded, despite some of that waste retaining a lot of usabilities. We try to salvage and bring it to life in a new form,” says Shailaja Rangarajan, who founded Reimagined in 2016 after experiencing first-hand the impact of solid waste on the city’s environment.
The firm re-purposes materials such as rubber tyres, denim and more to create high-quality fashion accessories. “When we design anything, our focus is to minimise the waste, maximise what we have and figure out ways to utilise leftover material. We don’t make products which need to be thrown away in two or three months,” explains Rangarajan.
Another city-based firm, Kaiyare, which means ‘made with hands’ in Kannada, re-purposes agricultural waste such as banana bark and lantana to make high-quality handbags and furniture. “Lantana is an invasive species of weed that grows extensively in south Indian forests. The easiest way to get rid of it is to burn it. And obviously, that isn’t good for the environment,” says Nikitha Satish, one of the founders of the firm.
Shailaja Rangarajan believes that fast fashion is one of the biggest threats to the environment and hopes that consumers invest in sustainable and long-lasting products.
“Buying something very cheap, only to throw it away and buy something else again is not sustainable. We make products that will last for a long time. For instance, rubber doesn’t disintegrate, which is seen as a disadvantage. But for us, it’s an advantage, because it means our products will last a long time. The denim bags that we stitch can be just thrown into a washing machine and wash and use it go on for year,” she concludes.