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PHOTOS : P.V.SIVAKUMAR

Fashion conscious eco- conscious Kedar.

Kedar Maddula of Wundershop sells his clothes in paper bags made out of newspapers. “The bags are made by the caretakers at Bethesda Institute for the mentally challenged,” he explains.

The bio-degradable bags put newsprint to good use and provide an income to the institute. And Kedar gives them good business, with an order of a minimum of 500 bags per month. He also makes bags out of discarded biscuit and wafer packets that he hands over to customers making larger purchases.

Puja show their bags.

Designer Puja Sahney uses leftover bits of fabric and scrap material to make bags and these bags are used to handover the finished clothes to the customer instead of plastic bags. The bags are thoroughly re-usable and made with bits of good fabric. Sometimes, Puja uses a piece of embroidered fabric to embellish the bag or uses her creativity and decorates the bags with zari and ribbon.

Puja says, “It takes time and effort to make these bags. I have to devote a tailor and a machine to make them, but they are worth the effort.” This, besides providing Lakshmi, who was specially hired for this project, with employment. “People use them for a variety of things- to preserve documents, saris and even to carry home their vegetable shopping!” She also re-uses scrap stationary to make scribble pads. “We believe in re-using and re-cycling as much as we can,” she says.

Anand Kabra’s eco-friendliness changes with the season. One season it’s jute bags, another time it’s cloth bags and currently is using paper bags made of recycled paper. “The idea to do something eco-friendly has been there from the beginning. Since I don’t have the time to do much, this is my little way of doing something for the world around me.”

Another designer to join them is Shravan Rao who uses paper bags made of recycled paper. The bags are sourced from Karimnagar. Shravan bans the use of plastic bags in his workshop and says, “To encourage this, even when we go to buy lining and fabric, the workers are made to take our own cloth bags.” So while buzz words like eco-friendly and ‘go green’ have created a furore and disappeared, these people continue to live up to their promise, to uphold the eco friendliness in their approach.

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