A budding eco-friendly entrepreneur

Following her mother Purvi Doshi's footsteps Ahmedabad-based Priety Doshi finds out a solution to use the left-over cloth material to create unique designs.

With 'sustainable' being the buzz word making rounds in the market these days, the left-over materials used for making biodegradable products is certainly a better option.

Taking this initiative forward Priety came up with her very own products beginning with a simple but extremely practical duster. Her products are zero wastage biodegradable products and she named her line,s 'The Unwanted'

Tell us about yourself

I am currently studying my 12th, I have taken commerce subject and my interests include painting, drawing and listening to music.

I used to play the drums and guitar and I also like to participate in debates and play basketball besides the designs I do.

What interested you to make the bio-degradable products?

I used to frequently visit my mother's boutique and she would talk to me about using the waste material and she would ask my opinions, I started thinking about it and then when I saw it I throw the idea and then decided to do it.

Can you share more about 'The Unwanted'?

About a month ago, I was at my mom's boutique and since my childhood I used to visit that place just to observe my mother's work. So, I was always ignorant about the waste material that was lying in there.

My mother used do the best out of the cloth waste, she used to make carry bags out of the cloth waste, but there was still a lot of waste left, which was shapeless and could not be used for anything.

So, I was looking around and then it struck me that I needed to do something out of the waste cloth material. Then I had my summer vacation.

I wanted to do something that is sustainable, I took help of some of my mother's staff and then took a little advise from my mom as well and decided to make the basic household products, which can be used by everyone.

I thought it would be easy to make a duster, but then it took me 12 tries to make it perfect. I wanted to make the best out of it; I went to a slum and then employed few people there to make these products.

We have sold almost 350 dusters in 20 days and we will be coming up with a lot more of these with the same philosophy. Our motive is that the waste material should be the raw material.

Tell us about these bio degradable products

The duster that I made, the cloth is bio-degradable and we have also used the bamboo stick instead of a plastic pipe, as it is bio degradable.

The other products that we will be coming up with are a yoga mat, lamp shade and bags. All the raw material used is bio-degradable.

Who is your inspiration?

It would definitely be the work that my mom's doing. Apart from that everyone is on social media and companies doing CSR activities that are posted on it.

I have seen large firms taking up these initiatives. When we called up few stores that sell a household products and most of them told no to our idea of the duster, but eventually we started advancing on it.

I need to generate employment for the slum people and for that I would need a fare wage, after all the calculation and we priced it for 150 rupees.

I learnt a lot with this start up and it was a nice experience. My vision is to reach 1000 people by 2020.

Do you want to take this up as career?

Anything that I do in the future I want it to be based on the same philosophy and I want to be a social entrepreneur by helping everyone around me and earn a bit.

How do you manage your academics and work?

I go to school every day, but for the venture, I had to go to the old city to get the material for which I used to miss my school because I had to learn.

Interestingly, I am also creating entrepreneurs with this initiative, I used to take my driver along with me when I used to buy the raw material and thought him how to handle the business and now, he is an entrepreneur as well.

It is really difficult to handle academics with all of this, but I can always find some good way to do this.