Indian teen turns 'waste' pottery into global learning tool, wins prestigious and highly selective Sustainability Hackathon

India PR Distribution

New Delhi [India], December 17: Grade 12 student Amairah Anand from Sanskriti School, New Delhi has won First Prize in the School Category at the Nationwide Sustainability Hackathon 2025 organised by TERI School of Advanced Studies, Vasant Kunj, for her innovative circular-economy venture "Purani Pottery Puzzles."

TERI SAS HACKATHON

The hackathon brought together 100+ teams from schools and universities across India to propose practical business ideas addressing climate and sustainability challenges. In the school track, students were invited to design "sustainable and inclusive toys for children", with top entries evaluated by an expert jury, across several difficult rounds of selection, including a rigorous panel interview round by eminent experts, entrepreneurs, and sustainability leaders. at TERI SAS's New Delhi campus.

TERI SAS HACKATHON

Amairah's project emerged a national winner, earning a cash prize of ₹15,000 and recognition from TERI SAS's Alumni Association and faculty leadership.

From broken shards to "Purani Pottery Puzzles"

Purani Pottery Puzzles tackles an often-overlooked waste stream: broken or unsold blue pottery from artisan clusters such as Kot Jewar near Jaipur. Once fired, ceramic does not biodegrade; India generates an estimated 15-30 million tonnes of pottery waste annually, much of which ends up in landfills.

Amairah's model collects these otherwise loss-making shards from local artisans and transforms them into child-safe puzzle and art kits. The fragments are processed, edges sealed with non-toxic coating, and then packaged as hands-on "Purani Pottery Puzzle Kits" for children, schools, and craft enthusiasts. Each kit includes:

Purani Pottery Puzzles

* Carefully prepared blue pottery pieces that can be arranged into puzzles or mosaics

* A story card introducing the artisan who made the original pot

* A trivia card on sustainability and the history of Indian pottery

The tagline of the venture, "Where cracks make comebacks," captures its core idea: embracing imperfections and giving broken pieces a second life. This not only recycles millions of tonnes of pottery waste but gives more income to these potters who lose essential materials to broken pottery. It also creates awareness about our culture of blue pottery and value of sustainability from an early age in children aligning with government's New education policy and UN Sustainability Goals.

Pottery entrepreneurship & self-sustaining ecosystems

From an early age, Amairah was drawn to clay and colour, spending weekends not in malls but travelling nearly 500 kilometres from Delhi to traditional blue-pottery clusters to learn directly from master artisans. Over the years, these visits have grown into a commitment to revive a dying art form: she regularly helps organise stalls and exhibitions in Delhi, including Diwali melas, so that artisans can sell their work at fair prices and build stable livelihoods. In workshops, she also guides potters on basic safety practicesfrom better kiln ventilation to wearing masks while handling glaze powdersto reduce long-term risks such as lung cancer. For Amairah, pottery is not just craft; it is heritage, health, and economic resilience moulded together.

Beyond a one-off project, Purani Pottery Puzzles is being built as a self-sustaining micro-enterprise that benefits both artisans and children:

* Artisan livelihoods: Partner artisans earn extra income from pottery that was previously discarded or sold as scrap, buffering them against market volatility and breakage losses.

Purani Pottery Puzzles

* Circular design: Every kit is built on the principles of reduce, reuse, recycle, and reimagineusing repurposed pottery, biodegradable paints, and zero plastic or resin.

Purani Pottery Puzzles

* Education & heritage revival: Children learn about craftsmanship, cultural heritage, and sustainability each time they assemble a puzzle, turning playtime into eco-education.

Purani Pottery Puzzles

A portion of the earnings is reinvested into sourcing more waste pottery, training additional artisans, and designing new puzzle formats, allowing the model to grow without depending solely on grants.

"I wanted to prove that sustainability can be playful and profitable," Amairah says. "Every kit we ship means less pottery in a landfill and more dignity and income for an artisan."

From Jaipur kilns to homes and classrooms worldwide

What began as a local craft-and-sustainability idea is already gaining international traction. Purani Pottery Puzzles and toys are now being shipped to schools, NGOs, and families in countries such as Ethiopia, the Philippines, the United States, and across parts of Europe, reflecting global interest in upcycled, culturally rooted learning tools.

Teachers and parents report that children are fascinated not just by solving the puzzles, but by the story of how each shard once belonged to a handcrafted pot in a Jaipur workshopand was saved from becoming waste.

A faculty member at TERI SAS noted that the project, "connects multiple SDGs at onceresponsible consumption and production, decent work for artisans, quality education, and cultural preservationthrough something as simple and joyful as a toy."

TERI SAS HACKATHON

For media inquiries, please contact:

Name - Tarun Anand

Email: tarun.anand@gmail.com | Phone: +919811202137

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