Plastic bags are a plague. They can be found in just about every corner of the planet— in fields, trees, rivers, oceans and even in the stomachs of birds and sea creatures around the globe.
They don’t biodegrade in landfills and almost every piece of plastic ever made is still in existence today.
Enter Anita Ahuja, founder and president of Conserve, based in India. Anita has come up with a way to upcycle the plastic bags plaguing her region and also help numerous people find gainful employment. The result is Conserve’s stunning range of bags made from recycled plastic. We caught up with Anita to ask her a few questions about her fashionable eco-bags and her amazing enterprise.
Please tell us a bit about Conserve.
Along with support and encouragement from my family and friends I established Conserve, a non-profit organization in 1998 with a mandate to work in the area of energy efficiency and waste management. In 2002, Conserve started working on developing an alternative recycling or rather up-cycling process that uses abundantly and freely available bags as a resource for income generation for the urban poor through their conversion into a "renewed" material which we call HRP – Handmade Recycled Plastic.
Conserve has trained people from urban slums of Delhi to process waste into recycled sheets, which is more energy efficient and environmentally friendly than conventional recycling processes. This process converts used polythene bags into a 'renewed' innovative material with significantly different properties and great visual appeal, without the use of any additional colour or dyes.
Conserve's process of recycling is far more environmentally and energy friendly than the conventional plastic recycling process. Moreover, it is very good for the environment as it uses existing everyday skills of local people. Now Conserve is supporting nearly 100 rag pickers and has about 50 employees working for them.
How many different types of bags do you make?
We make all kinds of handbags. Be it day totes, beach totes, day bags, evening bags, shoppers, wallets for men and women, we make them in varied colours, shapes and sizes.
Who designs and makes the bags?
We are constantly experimenting with more and more fabrics and post consumer materials that can be recycled into a number of environmentally sound products. I design the bags, along with the team of designers. We also often have designers and design school students who join us for internships or volunteer programs.
How many plastic bags does it take to make a typical Conserve bag?
An average Conserve bag requires an initial 70-75 polyethylene bags to be used in its fabrication.
What other products do you make?
We are constantly experimenting with more and more fabrics and post consumer materials that can be recycled into a number of environmentally sound products. These experiments with a variety of other wastes include used tire tubes, waste car seatbelts and waste textile such as organic cotton, denim, hosiery, polyester, old saris and jute rice/wheat sacks. Conserve is making all varieties of handbags, totes, belts, stationary, travel accessories, mats, carpets and storage solutions from these materials.
Are plastic bags a serious problem in India?
Plastic bags, due to their non-biodegradable nature, have compelled people worldwide to think about their correct disposal. Disposal of plastic bags has caused countrywide havoc. The cities will never have enough capacity to pick up the 7 million tons of waste that is generated everyday. Currently the capacity is limited to 4 million tons. There's hardly any space for landfills left. This leaves the cities with very little option but to cut down on the waste it generates either through reuse or upcycling.
The new century requires new solutions, even for waste management. Incineration and landfills are no longer viable options in the era of global warming. This recognition is gradually on the rise and so are ideas for solutions.
Where do you get the plastic bags?
Waste/rag pickers pick up plastic bags from landfills and other means in the waste stream. We buy them from these rag pickers and in turn provide them with a substantial living wage.
Any estimates on how many plastic bags are picked up each day?
It is really hard to keep a track of the amount of plastic bags we have recycled until now, but roughly we obtain nearly 20-25 kilograms of polyethene from the rag pickers each day.
How much does one of your bags cost?
One of our bags called Bermuda costs about US$8.50. At an average cost ranging from US$4.00 - US$15.00.
Where can people get more information?
Most of the important information is available on our official website. You can find our project outlines, pictures, catalogues and order information there. For further queries we can be contacted directly anytime.
Anything you would like to add?
Recycling plastic bags in this manner offers only a motivation to dispose of them correctly; it is not a whole solution and should not be accepted as an endorsement for continued use of them. Plastic bags offer undoubted convenience but are an unnecessary environmental nuisance and have a dismal record of causing suffering both to humans and animals. Hopefully, one day, the need for these bags will no longer be felt. But, until then, all efforts have to be made to ensure that these visual eyesores are collected from the garbage dumps and recycled appropriately.
Visit: www.conserveindia.org
We first heard about Anita Ahuja’s company in the amazing film –Addicted to Plastic. Read our review here.
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