It’s about time we end our toxic relationship with plastic and switch to a lifestyle that will enable our future generations to breathe easier and live well. Easier said than done, I know. We found you a brand you can take inspiration from - Recharkha.
Recharkha is a social enterprise that takes your difficult-to-recycle waste and turn it into beautiful everyday products you can use. Recharkha employs tribal women and youth in creating these upcycled handwoven products, creating livelihood opportunities for the less privileged.
This Pune-based enterprise collects plastic/polyethene bags, wrappers of biscuits, cookies, old audio and video cassette tapes, gift wrappers, cereal packets, detergent packets, and a lot of other household toxic waste. You can even segregate the waste at home and send it across to them. The next step is to take all the non-biodegradable waste and make it into handspun fabric using the traditional charkha and handloom. The fabric is then used to make beautiful tote bags, jholas, laptop sleeves, duffle bags, wristlets, storage baskets, planters, cushion covers, table mats, pouches and more. One look at the products they create and you won’t believe it’s made out of waste.