Unreasonable Institute Fellow 2012. Jump to: Basics | Team | Venture | Milestones Basics Describe yourself briefly.
Graduating as an Engineer from BITS, Pilani, I set up my first venture of TV production at age 25 and diversified into pioneering Energy efficiency Controls in India in 1989, much before “climate change” became a common phrase. Clients included virtually all the major Hotel Chains in India. I also Implemented the first (and then largest) EE project of 220KV XLPE cable installation in Delhi, which saw revenues jump exponentially. Describe your Unreasonable Venture in 100 words or less. Conserve uses waste as a resource to create fashion products for the developed markets and jobs and livelihood options for the urban poor. We have trained over 600 people in Urban slums around Delhi to process plastic (and other) waste material into a "renewed" material that competes with Leather but is more environmentallly and socially friendly. Our buyers include Monsoon, Crate n Barrel, Ragbag, Oxfam to name a few. Back to top ↑
Anita Ahuja. Anita focuses on two intertwined issues: Delhi’s plastic waste crisis and the community of ragpickers who collect and separate garbage, including plastics.
Her entrepreneurship model has two components: Ensuring a regular livelihood for the ragpickers and creating commercially successful products from waste plastic through a technology she developed. Conserve creates large plastic sheets from discarded plastic bags using a process Anita invented and is currently in the process of patenting. Through an innovative amalgamation process, she melts the plastic bags together, creating colorful, durable materials of varying thicknesses.
Since the plastic bags come in all colors, different designs can be created using pieces of the original bags instead of additional dyes or inks. Conserve currently operates around a dozen of these innovative machines. Each new plastic sheet is unique and can be fashioned into products such as diaries, bags, raincoats, and umbrellas. Read less. Bag Lady - Forbes.com.
Handmade recycled plastic « Today, in our last interview for the ideas hub, we hear from Conserve India’s co-founder, Anita Ahuja.
With an academic background in political science, Anita’s career has encompassed various roles: writer, artist, designer, environmentalist and social activist. Today, she combines all these skills and interests in her work as Conserve’s Creative Director. 1. How did Conserve India begin? I started Conserve India over 11 years ago, with my friends and family, as a small neighbourhood composting project. Early on we realized there wasn’t a great local market for selling compost. It sounds a little strange, but when I saw plastic bags floating down the street it was almost as if they were calling out to me to do something with them.
Where other people saw waste, I saw a material with inherent beauty. Anita Ahuja interviewed for french documentary series, Shamengo So, with my engineer husband Shalabh and members of our family, I began thinking about how we could use this material. Ragbags ou quand le sac plastique se recycle ! Ragbags, ce sont des sacs et porte-monnaie faits de sacs en plastique recyclés recueillis par les «ragpickers» dans les bidonvilles de New Delhi.
Les sacs plastique sont recueillis, lavés, séchés et séparés en fonction de leur couleur. Ils sont mis alors dans une machine, qui les compresse en feuilles plus épaisses et plus résistantes. Une feuille contient approximativement 60 sacs en plastique. Aucune teinture ou encre n’est utilisée dans ce procédé de fabrication. Les feuilles sont alors coupées, revêtues avec le tissu soit cousu soit moulé en fonction du produit désiré. Le projet, réalisé en relation avec une ONG à New Delhi, fournit déjà du travail à une cinquantaine de personnes (ragpickers, employés des centres de collecte,…) localement. Visiter la boutique en ligne.