Recycled scrap items add shine

While living rooms in metropolitan cities these days are getting filled with expensive furniture, there are some who have decided to make use of leftover and scrap material to decorate their homes.

Even though, the recycled products, which include lamps, tea-tables and so on, are yet to gain ground, the youth of the Capital have started to show a preference for these goods. Many of these young men and women told Metrolife that they use the products because of the creativity that gets incorporated in it.

Some others said the recycled products are cheaper and durable. And then there were those conscious of the environmental degradation.
Namita Shiv Kumar, who teaches Spanish at the Instituto Hispania in Delhi, believes that the recycled products sho­uld gain prominence as against the culture of pur-chasing expensive material. “The first time I bought these products, my family, especially my mother, was impressed by the effort that was put into them.

My relatives would come to our home and see for themselves how beautiful they look. Some of my extended family members also have started to use these products,”
said Kumar.

We:arth is one such initiative which is currently selling home decor recycling waste material.

According to Priya Mandal, We:arth was conceptualised by Vision, a company in the business of signage manufacturing and the Kutumb Foundation (KF), a non-governmental enterprise working for the empowerment of disadvantaged young people. Mandal who herself works in KF is responsible for ideating
for We:arth.
“We recently made a table from plastic bottles, stools from buckets and a lamp made from newspapers. All these products are made up of material which could not have been reused in any other way,” said Mandal.

She added that while they are not as popular as they want them to be, the mere production of such goods is more like a movement to her.

“They are eco-friendly products and more than making and selling these good we want to inculcate a culture of recycling,” Mandal added.Sara Hasan, a social worker, was among those who often buy recycled products.

She said that people who produce and buy recycled goods are showing exemplary ‘courage’ in the face of growing superficiality . “Even if the products are kitsch, it is the trend. Also, i  it makes sense. You feel good about the intelligent ideas behind it and hard work,” Hasan said.