KOCHI: 53-year-old Annie Varghese is the poster woman for creative sustainability. She is on a mission to reduce plastic waste and recycle them into floor mats and home decor. While Annie has always been inclined towards art, she never actively pursued it until a thought struck her during her daily commutation in a suburban train in Mumbai to the Lilavati Hospital and Research Centre where she worked as a nurse for years.
“Plastic bags coloured differently always fascinated me. I decided to create floor mats from these single-use plastic bags,” she says.For her project, Annie started collecting used plastic bags from her neighbours and eventually had plenty to weave into floor mats, chair mats, covers for television sets and even a small purse. “The bags need to be cut into small strips. The strips are then tied together and woven into the desired shape. It takes almost a week to complete a floor mat as weaving the strips together is a laborious task,” she says.
After working as a nurse in Mumbai for over 25 years, Annie returned to Kerala. Her health had deteriorated as she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. However, she didn’t give up her interest in art. “I intend to create more products,” says Annie.
She recently participated in the ‘lockdown for future’ campaign held online by the C5 Foundation, a Thiruvananthapuram-based environment conservation organisation, and the Earth Day Network where tpeople were invited to share their ‘green acts’ during the lockdown period. The campaign saw over 200 entries across social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Besides making DIY from plastic bags, Annie is also adept at organic farming.