This Man Is Promoting The Use Of Clay Bottles In A Bid To Tackle Growing Plastic Menace

New Delhi: Plastic takes up to 1,000 years to degrade in a landfill and in our country most of the plastic waste straight away ends up going into the landfills without any treatment due to poor waste management system. But an engineer from Tumkur district in Karnataka decided to do something about it. He left his job and started working on finding sustainable alternatives to plastic. Today, he is a proud owner of Livegreen India, an enterprise that is continuously finding alternatives to plastic products and is promoting the use of earthenware water bottles through his production Apha Clay Bottles. What’s great is that these look-alikes of plastic bottles are 100 per cent eco-friendly as they are made out of clay and are light in weight as compare with the conventional PET bottles and in terms of durability, can last 8-10 years.

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Plastic is like a monster, it is killing our planet slowly. Wherever we go, there is one sight, we all are very used to see and that’s the litter of discarded PET plastic bottles. Back in 2015, the idea to bring back the traditional matka concept struck me. That’s when I decided I will come up with clay bottles and bring back the ancient art of pottery. But, the problem was clay is heavy in weight. So, I started finding solutions to cope up with that and make it more portable. I researched on various methods about how an earthenware container could be made light weight and portable, once I figured, I started working on a rubber lid which can ensure that under no circumstances would a drop of water leak from the bottle, said 29-year-old Pramod Siddagangaiah who is born and brought up in Karnataka.

With a small production unit set in the district itself and with 3 employees, Pramod started manufacturing the clay bottles. The bottles are usually handmade, only the process of reducing clay’s weight is a machinery process. Though the original method of pottery involves the wheel, Pramod and team uses different moulds to offer uniformity in the products.

Today, they are making 100 bottles daily and till date have sold some 6,000 bottles. The bottles cost Rs 380 and are available on their site and on other e-commerce sites.

Talking about the benefits of the clay bottles, Pramod added, “These bottles are just not eco-friendly, but can also keep your water cool as they use the natural process of evaporation cooling.”

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Meet the innovator – Pramod Siddagangaiah

Apart from the clay bottles, Pramod’s company also offers vertical gardening and modular composting services.

The swachh warrior signs off by adding, I have taken a small step in reducing India’s growing plastic waste, if everyone joins the Swachh crusade and starts working on something or the other, we too can become a waste free country.