project phirban
The COVID-19 pandemic made us appreciate our privileges and taught us to make the best out of what we got. It exposed us to the harsh realities of unemployment and waste production in our country. One of the significant contributors to this waste was Personal Protective Equipment (or PPE). Around 45,000 tons of Covid-19 biomedical waste was generated between June 2020 and May 2021 and the majority of this biomedical waste comprises PPE scrap, made up of polypropylene, the same plastic used for drinking straws, water bottles, etc.
Our project emerged from the dire consequences of Covid-19 on the environment, and employment of our country in the past one year.
By taking this adverse situation as a challenge that needed to be overcomed, Project Phirban came into place as a great opportunity, in which we upcycled the unused PPE scrap into sustainable multi-purpose mattresses and pet beds, named HumsaFurr.
Working in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), our project intends to make comfort accessible and also ensure an enduring living.
Keeping in mind the essence of social entrepreneurship, we followed an easy and convenient method to implement our project. By obtaining unused scraps from PPE manufacturers, we segregated the pieces of different lengths and braided them together. Post braiding, with the help of a wooden board, we weaved together these braids and turned it into a mattress. And to further improve the quality of our mattress, we made a cover which is also handmade with leftover cloth pieces.
The Usp of our product is that it is sustainable, lightweight, foldable, and low in cost.
For the most important aspect of our project i.e our beneficiaries, we collaborated with Myloktantra, a nonprofit public trust, in Noida. It works as a haven for women living in the jhugi and jhupdis which are adopted by them. By dividing women living there into self-help groups and being an intermediary for them in providing life-changing opportunities, we connected with these women for the making of our product.
Through our easy-to-adapt technique, we tend to empower our target community by converting waste to wage.
Thus by selling these mattresses at a minimal cost, we try to solve 3 major problems with one shot i.e providing a source of income to our community, reuse the existing plastic in the society that helps in managing the waste efficiently and providing homeless people and people in need for a solution to lack of comfort ensuring their right to basic amenities.
