From trash to fashionable bags

reCharkha Eco Social is a social and environmental venture that aims to apply sustainable and eco-friendly development methods in India. Founded by 37 year old, Pune Based Amita Deshpande, is turning plastic waste management into an art form by upcycling non-biodegradable and non-recyclable plastic into fabric. The company's artisans and workers spin the plastic fabric using handlooms and traditional charkhas and make handbags, accessories, and home decor products.

Recycling breaks products down into their raw materials to be made into totally new things, while upcycling creatively repurposes old materials while maintaining some of their original characteristics.

Amita through her venture make products from waste plastic includes carry bags, wrappers, other chips and gift wrappers. They make handicrafts through charkha and make fabrics with it. They are also aiming to provide an alternative for those that are available in the markets right from hand bags to clothes.

Sharing about her journey and the venture, Amita shares, "I completed my bachelors in IT and worked in the same sector for a while. Later got more interested in the environmental sector and was also a trekking enthusiast. So I decided to complete my masters in business but with a focus on sustainability. In 2013, I launched a company called Arohana. Earlier recharkha was called as Arohana Recently we rebranded it into Recharkha, doing the same work with an idea of conserving the environment and creating livelihoods for remote villages."

Before deciding to become agents of change, Amita was with KPIT Cummins. It was during her time there that Amita realised that she truly wanted to do environment-related work. She quit her job to take a course in sustainability from Purdue University. She saw that people in rural India were lacking employment options outside agriculture, compared with the number of odd jobs mushrooming in cities and towns. Unlike most companies, Arohana takes pride in their manual labour and lack of technology and automation in manufacturing. The founders went to rural areas, and taught villagers the art of hand weaving - an impressive feat, considering it is a craft that usually takes years of experience to master. "Weaving fabric is so much easier than weaving plastic where everything has to be done manually and takes time. For instance, for making one beach bag around 50 wrappers or plastic bags are upcycled," Amita says.

During the pandemic, they started making masks to keep their artisans engaged.

She shares, "That is not for what we are known for. While making the masks also we manufactured it with only pure cotton masks without using any plastic."

How reCharkha changed their lives

Vandana: Vandana is a tribal youth, belonging to the Warli tribe of Western India. Due to the low educational standards of the local school, she dropped out of school after 9th grade. Being the eldest girl of her family, she started helping her mother with housework and stayed mostly at home in her village, with limited exposure to the outside world. When reCharkha came to her village with an opportunity to work, she immediately joined us. She joined as an assistant artisan and soon picked up weaving as well. She now does other processing work as well as weaves fabric. Despite her petite structure, she is a strong young woman and doesn't get tired with an all day's work. She is always cheerful and given a chance, loves to design her own patterns in the fabric.

Lalita: Lalita stays with her joint family of 11 members, comes from a tribal family. Her father is a farmer and her mother helps in the fieldwork. Lalita has done her education till 8th Standard. Being a newcomer to our team; she has been into cutting of plastic waste. She feels happy to work with reCharkha as the workplace is near to where she stays and does not have to go to other cities looking for a job.