Spinning the Fate of Plastic

Though Many organisations are engaged in the plastic weaving but Pune based reCharka seems determined to design the death of the plastic,with a staff of 25 the entity spins out a range of products like  bags, pouches, yoga mats, pen holders, plant holders, tablet covers etc.

Starting from a small tribal village in Union territory Dadra Nagar Haveli, the Pune based organisation has trained many women in spinning charkha to weave yarn out of discarded plastic.

Before conceptualizing her idea, Amita Deshpande, founder of reCharkha – The EcoSocial Tribe herself took training and informally attended a couple of  classes to learn spinning on a charkha (spinning wheel) and weaving from a school for the visually disabled.

The upside of the venture is that it is not a  capital intensive and put a leash on plastic menace. After gathering the cast off plastic from various sources be it dumpyards, garages or rag pickers, the plastic is manually cut into long strips with a pair of scissors and then spun on a conventional charkha into plastic yarn and then woven into fibre that is used to make various utility and decorative products with the integration of design element to it. Some designers have recently joined them to reimagine the products and find new ways to use plastic fibre.

Segregation of plastic waste is of utmost concern both in rural as well as urban areas so that it does not contaminate the food chain so the aim was to come up with a pragmatic solution that was sustainable, innovative and created livelihoods for rural people while tackling the problem of plastic waste.

Recently a call for  binding global treaty was also made by Scientists to tackle the menace to phase out the production of “virgin” or new plastic by 2040.