A Pune based entrepreneur, Pooja Badamikar, upcycles scrap tyres to make pretty footwear with an aim to promote environmental awareness in a unique way.
"One billion tyres are discarded annually in the world. I started working with help of local cobblers and made two prototypes. That's how the journey began," said Badamikar.
Badamikar, a post-graduate in renewable energy has been working on converting scrapped tyres into footwear through her footwear brand Nimital for the last two years. By recycling the scrapped tyres into footwear she has been able to control the pollution which otherwise would have been increased with a plastic sole that is usually used in footwear.
Speaking to Badamikar said, "Worldwide we generate around 1 billion scrapped tyres every year. So, I started thinking as to what can be made from tyres that can be used on a daily basis and at the end footwear was my conclusion."
Badamikar left her job with an IT company to start her own business in 2018 and ultimately in the same year she was awarded the Upcoming Woman Entrepreneur award with Start-Up in India competition. By recycling the tyre into footwear the environment has been saved in many ways, says Badamikar.
"Conventionally we use version rubber or plastic material as sole for footwear but we have replaced it with upcycled tyre and by that, we are helping to reduce the landfills, secondly we are helping to reduce the material like plastic to come to market and the third thing is we are reducing the use of resources such as oil and water which otherwise might have been consumed for manufacturing of that plastic or version rubber," said Badamikar.
"This is an alarming condition for all of us because the garbage levels are increasing around us, we have to reduce it and up cycling is the key to the new world," she added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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