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Phase: Ideas Opportunity Areas: Products to People – Reimagine Delivery Models

Shaw leaves packaging and Bamboo fiber products

Packaging of shaw leaves and usage of bamboo fibers are the best alternative of using plastic packs.

Photo of Dr. Sukumar Kar
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Written by

We are in the world where we cannot think without plastic.In our daily life we are almost dependent on different forms of plastic and it is the matter of thinking.Our organization Global Environment Research Foundation is an autonomous center for studies, training and research in the areas of ecology, environment, pollution monitoring & control, natural resource conservation, solid and liquid waste management, and environment audit and our main focus is to preserve our environment. In the same context there is a programme by our organization wherein we provide mentor ship,guidance and training to people who are in need or poor ones on products made of bamboo fibers and shaw leaves. 

We all know that bamboo has been used for many applications, from a food source to a building material. But with the age of modern materials, many people don’t understand the scope of uses for bamboo. The shoots can be picked early for eating, and the wood of older canes can be treated and used as anything from decoration to instruments. A fabulous trend right now is bamboo fibers being used in fabrics and clothing.It is becoming a mainstream trend to have bamboo fabric boxes in chain retail stores.

In GERF, we provide training on the said matter that how to use bamboo to make small boxes and usage of shaw leaves to get products to the people. These two are easily accessible every where and we are using these for generating employment and educating general public to use these bamboo and shaw leaves made box,plates etc to reduce the usage of plastic.

We have collaboration with local market, shops and many schools where our hand made bamboo fiber box and shaw leaves plates are being used. 


Idea Title

Natural packaging materials

Company / Organization Name

Global Environment Research Foundation.

Website

www.gerfkalyani.org

Where are you / your team located?

In the city Kalyani, West Bengal in India

How does this Idea redesign unrecyclable small format plastic items that often end up as waste?

Bamboo has been used through history not only because of the strength of the material, but also through the renewable prospects.Our idea,where we show the way of packaging and making boxes which would reduce the waste generated of plastic.

Which use cases does your Idea apply to?

In case 1, there is the usage of small pack of plastic. By idea we can easily replace the waste of plastic.

In what geographical context or area does your Idea plan to operate / solve?

worldwide

How do you envision scaling up your Idea?

Presently the hand made shaw leaves and bamboo fibers box are being used locally however we need to invest more on this to roll the concept on the mass level. Often we arrange small programmes to educate general public about using paper instead of plastic products.

At what stage of development is your Idea?

  • Research & Early Testing: You are exploring an idea, gathering inspiration and information needed to test it with real users.
  • Prototyping: You have conducted some small tests or experiments with prospective users and will continue developing idea through these tests.

Please describe how becoming a Top Idea and working with the Think Beyond Plastics Accelerator Program will help to accelerate your solution.

Our vision is to handle today's most challenging problem of world by a simple and user friendly solution. We have to agree on the point that we are surrounded by plastic materials and our step of using paper,bamboo fiber and shaw leaf are very simple but we are looking forward to take this initiative universally.

Please describe from where your Idea emerged

Individual idea for education and training for environmental related issues.

Tell us about your work experience

Me, In the field of education,training ,research and consultancy in the areas of ecology, environment,waste management and various NGO level work for developing audio visiual environmental protection.

Please describe your legal and organizational structure

We are registered organization and collaboration with several state and national agencies. We are associated with World Bank as C4D.

This inspired (1)

Protecting the balance of the environment by eliminating harmful waste project .
Protecting the balance of the environment by eliminating harmful waste project .

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Photo of Kate Rushton
Team

Hi Dr Sukumar, interesting post! Any chance you could find an image to go along with it? Images help grab attention and tell a story. You should be able to use the Edit Contribution button on the top of your post and follow the instructions to add images from there. Looking forward to seeing more of your inspiring insights on OpenIDEO.

It'd be helpful to learn a bit more about how this idea would work by adding more content to the Full Description part of your post. To update your post, hit the Edit Contribution button at the top of your post. Scroll down to your Full Description field. Then click Save after you're done updating!

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