A design engineer’s novel solution to reuse flexes

At a time when the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike is mulling over what has to be done with the discarded flex banners, a design engineer from Tata Consultancy Services may have an ideal solution.

Sunil Achar has been reusing the flexes and banners as 'grow bags' and 'flex pots' to grow plants.

It all started during the state Assembly elections earlier this year. "I used to see a number of flexes and banners in the city, especially in Whitefield. Sometimes, it used to cause trouble to pedestrians and motorists as it used to fall on them when there was heavy breeze," said Achar.

He watched some people making a heap of the flexes and banners and setting them on fire. "They burnt the materials to make space for banners from another party. That was the trigger for me. I took the remaining banners and made pots for plants," Achar said.

The pots are useful to grow saplings in-house, plants like tomatoes or air-purifiers. "My friend also uses them to make bags for women," he added.

With the BBMP ripping off nearly 21,000 flexes and banners in the city last week following orders from the high court, Achar has collected some of them to make flex pots and sell them. It costs about Rs 15 per pot and the money is mostly utilised for the travelling expense, he said.

He also participated in a 'Treasures from Trash' contest organised by Beautiful Bengaluru, a non-government organisation working towards reusing or recycling waste and preventing it from being tossed into the trash heap.

Meanwhile, the members of the Flex and Banners Association staged a protest on Tuesday at the BBMP head office, asking the civic body to revoke their ban on flexes and banners.

S N Krishnappa, association president, said: "If the BBMP does not revoke the decision, we will stage a statewide hunger protest."