The city finally has a zero-waste store and we, obviously, checked it out! Say hello to Kolkata Zero Waste Bazaar that wants to make eco-friendly living easier for us and aims for a cleaner and greener tomorrow. It’s been founded by ‘eco-warrior’ Lata Bhatia because she got sick of the pollution and waste around, Lata herself lives by the 5R principle - Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot - and has been on a ‘personal zero waste and minimalist journey’ since four years. She composts her kitchen and organic waste and recycles all the dry waste (it’s actually quite easy, she says!).
Her shop, Kolkata Zero Waste Bazaar, keeps several reusable, organic, handmade and upcycled products. We saw reusable stuff like steel and copper water bottles, tiffins, glasses and cups. They also stock grains, pulses, millets, honey, oil, Italian mixed herbs and tea leaves - all of it is sold loose without packets. Buy different kinds of cloth bags, honey from Sunderbans, vermicompost from Lata’s own terrace, composting bins, detergents, laundry soaps and bio enzymes.
Replace your regular toothpaste with herbal tooth powders and those chemical-filled soaps and cosmetics with organic and handmade ones. They’ve got bamboo toothbrushes, stainless steel straws, wooden combs, baby and adult cloth diapers as well as cloth reusable sanitary napkins. Ditch the boring and harmful gifts with upcycled ones. How about switching to paper and seed stationery and using decorations made of textile waste instead of the plastic ones? Sounds so much better, right?
Prices start at INR 6 for a pencil and go up to INR 2,000 for Italian mixed herbs.
