Page 24 - Plastics News May 2021

FeAtures

of plastic,” explains Sunny.
Big Plans
Plament is primarily focusing on furniture and interior
products and the founders say the material’s low-cost
will, in turn, help build products that aren’t as pricey.
“Wooden furniture is costly, and harm the environment
by deforestation. On the other hand, we have been able
to create a standard size table of 180cmX120cm breadth ,
which is selling at Rs 2,000 per unit,” he adds.Unnati says
Plament currently does not have direct competition in the
in plastic packaging.This packaging was only of one-time
use and most tourists were throwing it away and polluting market. “As we are creating using a new material, we can
the surroundings. We saw animals eating the leftovers and look at existing product lines across wood, marble, plain
consuming the plastic packaging,” recalls Sunny. They also plastic, etc.
found out that the locals burnt the plastic and polyethylene Sunny says Indore as a base suits the company as the city’s
along with wood during winters for heat, further polluting municipal corporation has extended its hand to help the
the environment and producing duo with the raw material —
harmful gas emissions. “Unnati Plastic recycling is the process of recovering scrap plastic waste. Plament claims
and I then decided to do or waste plastic and reprocessing the material into to have sold its product to
something to fix this problem useful products. When different types of plastics furniture makers in Indore, and
and we arrived at the concept are melted together, they tend to phase-separate, has a pipeline of a profit of Rs
of Plament,” says Sunny. like oil and water, and set in these layers. HDPE 12 lakh for FY 2021-22. They
Before zeroing on the concept is the most commonly recycled plastic and is have been able to make and
of Plament, the duo started considered one of the safest forms of plastic. It deliver 25 paperweights for a
thinking of everything that is a relatively simple and cost-effective process renowned university and also
can be done with plastic waste to recycle HDPE plastic for secondary use. HDPE supplied 30 tables to another
and stumbled upon the idea of plastic is very hard-wearing and does not break organisation. Plament has also
reusing it as a new material to down under exposure to sunlight or extremes of received an order for 120 tables
make designer furniture. heating or freezing from a Blind Children’s School,
“We developed the first Mixed plastics packaging (trays, tubs, pots, films and plans to execute the same
prototype at our campus, NMIMS etc) can also be mechanically recycled, and it is at the earliest.Plament raised
Indore. Our mentor and faculty, both economically and environmentally effective seed money of Rs 3 lakh from
Dr Rajarshi Sarkar helped us to do so. Infrastructure for the collection, sorting the founders’ friends and
with the required permission to and reprocessing of these valuable resources has family to get started. The
use the chemistry lab. Within a increased in recent years. venture has also been picked
few months of testing and trials, by Wadhwani Foundation’s NEN
we developed the material Plastic is a popular and highly versitile material, NextGen programme to help
from plastic,” tells Unnati. The and we use a lot of it. Optimising the lifespan of kickstart its journey. To scale
prototype is made of single- plastics by re-using and recycling items as many further, the duo is looking to
use plastic or low-density times as possible, for example, by recycling used raise around Rs 15 lakh this
polyethylene. “We have done plastic bottles into new ones, we can therefore year. The startup wishes to
different tests on the prototype reduce our need to create new plastic. set up a manufacturing plant
to understand its properties like to expand its operations. “We
the resistance test (water and heat), strength test, and will be initially focusing on the
durability test. Products are beautifully textured, feels like manufacturing of table furniture with an aim to capture the
marble, and available in different textures and colours. traditional furniture market by this new offering. Our plan
The base of the products is stainless steel or wood, which is to target people aged 18-25 and offer them new stylish
give them weight and support. The raw material or plastic low-cost furniture for their homes, schools, restaurants,
waste needed to make an 18 KG product needs 30-32 KG office, etc,” says Sunny.

Plastics News May 2021 24