JOIN USBengaluru startup takesreuse revolution forward
Have you ever wondered what happens to the wadding on the groceries from the supermarket or your favourite online store? Around 43 percent of manufactured plastic in India is used for packaging purpose, and most of it is single-use plastic. This means that this kind of plastic is disposed-off right after use. After it is disposed it goes directly to landfills or just ends up in the natural environment. Man-made perils like global warming and climate change are at their peak currently, and for humankind, it is a now or never situation to pay heed to some simple things like managing our waste and practising sustainability.
There are few but true changemakers who are making a positive change in this direction. There is one such start-up from Bengaluru that is making way for zero-waste living. Cleanlabel, a company founded by Shyam Sunder and Deepa Channabassappa is spearheading the reuse revolution in Bengaluru. The company’s shop and swap system allows customers to buy groceries in sustainable packagings like glass, steel, or organic cotton and allows the customers to swap the empty containers when they place a new order. The swapped packaging is sterilised and put back to use by the company.
“When you throw something away, it goes somewhere,” says Shyam. “Every time we buy a product, we are paying anywhere between Rs 1 to Rs 7 for a single-use plastic wrapper or a plastic bottle. A normal household buys about fifty products a month amounting to Rs 3,500 a year for plastic waste. We as consumers fund the plastic waste and pay the cost, literally.”
The company is currently operating in 30 pin codes in Bengaluru, in a radius of about seven to eight kilometres from Koramangala, and a few sections in Whitefield and Electronic City. The company has an online presence currently but they are planning to have omnipresence soon.”
“When it comes to sustainability, convenience and cost are extremely important, so we will partner with retail outlets as well, and make a system around it that they can pick up groceries and give back the packaging any time,” says Shyam.
Plastic Contaminates Food
Shyam tells Metrolife, “My mother had a certain terminal illness and she got cured just by eating clean food. So the idea was intimating in my head for almost a decade. Six years ago when my son was born, we started scrutinising food labels left-right and centre. During the intimation process, we decided that we will do organic, clean food; but when we researched at a much deeper level we realised that even plastic is a contaminant,” he says. Sustainability is an integral part of being organic. “You don’t want to contaminate your lands and that’s why you use organic methods. And plastic was a no-no because it was toxic to the whole process,” he says.
A Blend of International and Local Ideas
“We looked at some international models, and there was a company which started out pretty much around the same time as we did, and they were doing a similar reusability approach. We were wondering if this could work in India, and then we realised that we have a home-grown Dabbawallas’ system here already,” says Shyam. The Dabbawallas of Bombay process almost two-lakh orders a day without any problem. Their system gave them the confidence that reusability is the way to go.
Other Brands are Collaborating
“There are a couple of companies that we are already working with. There is a kombucha company and The Better India, which has their own line of products,” he says. However, many of their cleaning products still go in plastic containers. “We will partner with some of the forward-thinking brands and put them in our loop systems,” adds Shyam.