Where bags can make a difference

A two fold desire to help provide employment to young women and prevent use of plastic bags saw Menaha Sudhakar embark on a simple business plan

January 19, 2017 04:27 pm | Updated 04:27 pm IST

Store vegetables in these Noyyal Go Green produce bags

Store vegetables in these Noyyal Go Green produce bags

I n her apartment on the ninth floor in Sowripalayam, Menaha Sudhakar shows samples of produce bags that she has been working on. She calls them Noyyal Go Green Produce Bags and making them serves two purposes. “They generate employment for young girls and they provide people in the city an alternative to plastic bags.”

‘Produce bags’ as an alternative to plastic bags for daily use – is Menaha’s mission. On her visits to her husband’s village near Pollachi, Menaha came across young women who often asked her for work. The small village called Sedimuthur has not more than 50 houses and there is little employment opportunity for these young women. “I was volunteering at Siruthuli, an NGO based out of Coimbatore that has been untiring in its efforts to revive river Noyyal. I wanted to do my bit to help for the cause. After brainstorming ways to bring these two causes together, I made my mind to make produce bags,” she says.

The Noyyal Go Green Produce Bags are a result of much labour of much thought and hard work. The idea is to keep costs as low as possible. And it has paid off. “If you see, these bags are not perfect. These girls are not professional tailors so .... If I go for a professional tailor to make them, the cost would double and these women would be out of work.” Happily, the women in Menaha’s apartment complex have agreed to stop using plastic bags and use these green bags instead. Why wouldn’t they? “The bags are durable and they don’t need to pay extra for the plastic bags,” says Menaha.

Menaha helped these 20-something women stitch and design. They now use sewing machines and work from home. The endeavour has built self confidence and self esteem in them and Menaha wants to create more employment. She has placed the bags on sale on Amazon and she hopes this will create more demand. The more the sales, she says, the more these women will benefit. And she says she is quite satisfied with the orders she has got from Amazon. She wants to expand the workforce of employed women in Sedimuthur by getting more orders for bags.

It is easy to decry the use of plastic bags, but one has to provide an alternative to them, Menaha understands. What she does is to conduct small surveys amongst friends, neighbours and family where she asks them about all the plastic they use on a daily basis. Then she tries to find alternatives for those. Now she plans to start on jholas and water-proof bags that she hopes will do away completely with the need to use plastic bags.

The bags are durable and multi-purpose. They can be used to keep crayons and toys of kids, cosmetics and of course vegetables in the fridge. They come in various sizes, can easily be folded and kept anywhere, and “last for as long as a normal tee shirt would,” she says.

Menaha hopes big stores such as Pazhamudir will consider using these bags. “It is from stores such as these that we pick up plastic bags on each visit, so why not initiate this concept in those stores.”

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