An Indian entrepreneur is using sugar, cellulose, and corn fibers to make a plastic-like carrier bag for small Indian businesses.
His company Bio Reform has already replaced 6 million plastic bags in the checkout counters of stores all over India.
Based in Hyderabad, Mohammed Azhar Mohiuddin first got the idea during the general mayhem that arose during the pandemic. Mohiuddin was looking at global environmental issues with the hope of finding one his entrepreneurial spirit had the capacity to tackle.
He would eventually settle on plastic use, the overreliance on it in society, and the dangers of plastic contamination in the form of microplastic particles. Specifically, he wanted to find an alternative to one of the most common plastic products used today: the plastic shopping bag.
Mohiuddin saw the largest brands substituting plastic ones for those made of paper or even jute, but for medium and small businesses that power the majority of the Indian economy, the small increase in costs from using biodegradable bags was too prohibitive.
According to The Better India, he started studying a biodegradable polymer that was first formed and researched in the 1980s called PBAT (Polybutylene adipate-co-terephthalate). At the time, it was made with corn and potatoes.
After dodging scams and government-mandated quarantines to identify a suitable class of machinery to manufacture the PBAT bags in Gujurat, his presentation on PBAT landed nearly $100,000 (RS1 crore) in seed funding that allowed him to launch the project.
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“I tried to balance both my studies and the operations of the company—from collecting raw material, assisting workers to manufacture bags, delivering the products in the market,” Mohiuddin told The Better India. “I used to sleep in a corner in the factory.”
Overcoming bankruptcy, university studies, and a long backlog of unfulfilled orders, Bio Reform finally started to turn a profit, and today manufactures almost 500,000 bags per year at a gross revenue of $180,000.
“Issues related to plastic pollution are not limited to affecting aquatic life and animals anymore. Today, microplastic has reached our bloodstream. Bottled water contains microplastics. Addressing this is an important and urgent problem,” he told TBI.
“I am glad I am able to contribute my part. It is sometimes taxing to not lead a regular college life but in the end, it is all worth it. I feel content when I go back to sleep. But much more needs to be done to make India plastic-free, and I will continue to strive for it,” he adds.
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