A group of entrepreneurs/technocrats attached to Young Indians, the youth wing of Confederation of Indian Industry, has commenced an ambitious project of promoting cloth bags made from discarded/rejected/excess fabric pieces from various textile units to reduce the plastic materials usage in Tirupur.
An interesting aspect of the concept is that there would be no dedicated production unit to manufacture cloth bags. Instead, different stakeholders involved in attempting to make Tirupur knitwear cluster a ‘plastic free/litter free’ hub, are taking the responsibilities individually to produce such cloth bags of sizes depending on their choices, during spare time.
Many owners of textile units have come forward to commence the production of discarded cloth pieces to produce the bags at their units during intervals and spare sessions. Similarly, Sripuram Women’s Active Network (SWAN), a forum formed of wives of businessmen in the cluster, too, are helping out to produce cloth bags. Since the bags are produced in informal manner, there are no specific sizes. However, these scattered initiatives are like the adage of ‘small drops of water make an ocean,” said S. Kathiresh, chairman of Young Indians (Tirupur chapter).
ADVERTISEMENT
The bags produced are distributed free of cost to small scale shops, grocery outlets and eateries from where customers usually but different types of products to be taken home. More and more shopkeepers are also being educated on the importance of using such cloth bags.
The cloth bag project, carried out as part of ‘Go Green’ initiative commenced recently by the Young Indians, is gaining the support of different voluntary organisations and philanthropists.
The Young Indians also now plan to implement ‘solid and liquid waste management through recycling’ across Tirupur knitwear cluster.
ADVERTISEMENT
The scheme was recently launched on a pilot basis on a particular village.