KVIC  launches paper bags to reduce plastic menace

In its commitment to be an active participant in Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has derived a proportional yet novel way to reduce one of the biggest problems of the contemporary world, i.e. plastic menace, under its unique project named REPLAN (REducing PLAstic in Nature).

Keeping in mind the theme for 2018 – 'Beat Plastic Pollution', KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena launched freshly made rag picked, degraded and processed plastic waste mixed carry bags on August 30, at Kumarappa Handmade Ppaper InInstitute (KNHPI), Jaipur.

Saxena visited KNHPI in Sanganer, Jaipur, a KVIC unit, on August 2 this year. Foxed with the piles of polythene waste in the suburb areas of Jaipur, he thought its utilization in the handmade papermaking. "He asked the KNHPI officials to collect plastic garbage from the nearby drainage and after necessary cleaning and processing, mixed the plastic waste in the paper pulp to ascertain whether plastic waste can be utilized in handmade paper industries or not," says Saxena.

Accordingly, plastic waste was collected and the experiment was done by KNHPI scientists, and fortunately, the experiment was found successful. From experiment to launch of commercial production of handmade paper bags with mixed plastic waste has been completed in a record time of 28 days.

In the project 'Replan', waste plastic from nature – after processing – is mixed with cotton rags pulp in a ratio of 80 % (pulp) and 20% (plastic waste) and finally, sheet making is done. Now with this experiment, two metric ton of plastic waste will be utilized in the manufacturing of 1 lakh carry bags, which will remove plastic waste from the environment considerably.

KNHPI has already got supply orders of 75,000 carry bags so far worth Rs 78 lack which is likely to grow due to its cost-effectiveness and durability.

Interestingly with the mixing of 20% plastic waste, the strength of bags have increased by 7%.

KVIC Chairman, said we don't claim that the project 'Replan' has found an absolute solution to plastic menace but "It is an experiment to remove the existing waste plastic material from nature and use it in a semi-permanent manner, so that availability of plastic in nature is reduced to a large extent and bound into usable products," he said.