BHUBANESWAR : From picking up plastic waste from sea beaches across Odisha as a child to now helping Belgium deal with single use plastic menace, Odia girl Anusuya Samantaray has been taking small but consistent steps towards building a sustainable future and reducing carbon footprint.
Along with two of her friends and fellow students at Ku Luven Belgium Apoorva Vardhan (Faculty of Science) and Varun Singh (Faculty of Bioscience Engineering), Anusuya has come up with an edible cutlery range using spent grain - a byproduct of beer industry - as a bio-degradable alternative to single use plastic cutlery.
The cutlery, aptly named ‘Eco Ware’, was their winning entry into KICK Challenge, a university business competition focused on social entrepreneurship. A student of Ku Luven Belgium, one of the oldest and innovative research universities in the world, Anusuya is currently pursuing Master of Science in Sustainable Development. Her interest in the subject was instilled from childhood by her father Sanjay Samantaray, a nature enthusiast who taught her everything about coastal bio-diversity. Sanjay is the chief organiser of the India Surf Festival and founder of Surfing Yogis.
“Single use plastic is one of the biggest environmental hazards the world faces today. The idea took shape during a discussion with my father on problem of single use plastic. We talked about the emergence of edible cutlery as a sustainable alternative to plastic cutlery which has become a global concern. However, most of the companies that are exploring this potential market are using rice and wheat which are already agriculturally stressed commodities,” said the 22-year-old.
‘Apoorva, Varun and I did a lot of research and found out about spent grain, a byproduct of beer manufacturing industry, which is perfectly edible and a rich source of fibre. Restaurants in Belgium also use spent grain in pizzas. The country has over 1,000 beer brands and generates 60,000 MT of spent grain annually. So we decided to use this to come up with an edible cutlery range including spoons and dip cups”, she said.
The team came up with Eco Ware cups and trays which won the university innovation challenge and was awarded with the Gemma Frisius KICK Student Award. “We are now looking at product development and partnering with local breweries for commercial production,” said Anusuya.
As her affinity towards nature grew over the years, she came to understand its value and the several threats to the diverse life forms on the planet today.
“I knew that I definitely wanted to do something along the lines of environmental science or conservancy. However, I also found the human aspect - geographies, cultures and the way humans interact with nature. That is when I realised my interest in sustainability since it is a holistic approach that not only focuses on environment but also takes into account the social and economic dimensions that shape our lives,” says the green warrior who is an alumni of Xavier University Bhubaneswar where she pursued BSc in sustainable development.