The Paper Seed, a social enterprise based in Pakshikere, has come out with tricolour seed badges, made from areca sheath, which grows into a plant when planted in soil.
To observe 75th year of Independence (Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsava), the Paper Seed has come out with the tricolour badges prepared using naturally available areca sheath. The badges are inserted with seeds of brinjal, tomato and tulsi. The badges can be planted in pots or in the garden, explains Nithin Vas, founder of Paper Seed Co.
During the celebrations, the badge can be pinned on the dress as it has a safety pin. In addition, the Paper Seed has also launched eco-friendly Seed Rakhi, made from areca sheath and embedded with seeds, for this year’s Raksha Bandhan.
“We have made 600 badges and 3,000 Rakhis this year,” said Vas.
But the restrictions imposed to check spread of Covid-19 in districts bordering Kerala and Maharashtra has proved to be a big dampener. “We are finding it difficult to dispatch our consignments to different places. We have demands from many places, including Ranchi, Bengaluru, Rajasthan and Gujarat,” says Vas.
During the previous Independence Day celebrations, Paper Seed had made eco-friendly paper flags. During the previous Raksha Bandhan it had come out with Rakhi made from paper pulp and terracotta and embedded with seeds of passion fruit.
“This year we had planned to embedded them with Amla seeds. But we could not procure the required quality of seeds for it,” Vas said.
“When eco-friendly flags were prepared in the past, there was huge demand and we had sold over 15,000 flags. With the closure of schools and colleges due to Covid-19 pandemic, the demand has declined. Last year, various organisations had placed demand for eco-friendly flags,” he said.
Paper seed village
The work on Paper Seed village has begun in Pakshikere. “We want to transform the lives of poor families in the village. The poor families will be trained in different eco-friendly products, and make them self-employed. We want to create a sustainable model for youth through self-employment by training them to prepare various useful products like eco-friendly jewellery, baskets from locally available creepers and organic agarbattis,” Vas added.