Chennai: Working towards her vision of ‘Eco-friendly India’ and women empowerment is Sowmya Sankaran, the founder of Life With Equality.
She had been working with creating designs for living spaces by involving plants and eco-friendly materials.
Now, working with like-minded people who want to reduce the amount of waste generated daily and the plastic dumped in our dumpyards, her group has been promoting and selling products made by reusing and upcycle of discarded products, to instill eco friendliness in society.
“Discarded plastic bottles, for instance, are up cycled to make products like bird feeders, bangles, ornaments thus reducing the plastic waste. We are working with women self-help groups (SHGs) that are trained to make such products,” said Sowmya.
Passionate about putting natural products to use, Sowmya has been working with women groups to make products like eco-friendly plates and sanitary napkins for the differently-abled, made of recycled cloth material. Disposable plates, made of dried plantain leaves, are made at small manufacturing units and then are supplied to hotels.
“The sanitary napkins are made of cloth and are designed for the differently-abled so that they can wear those comfortably, unlike the regular ones,” she added.
“These products are easy to make, and empower women who are trained in their production,” she said. Her next foray is into making eco-friendly cosmetics out of vegetables and fruits.
“Chemical-free, affordable cosmetics is the aim. There are foods that produce color naturally, so we have been using those,” she said. “These women are being trained in making such products that we are expecting to launch in May. These will be cheap and eco-friendly products, like lipsticks and kajal, which are made of vegetables and fruits. These will be available directly from the manufacturers for retail and thus won’t be priced heavily,” she added.
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