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Meet Indian entrepreneur Renuka Shah who created pencils that can be converted to veggies
Renuka Shah's Jalebi is an eco-friendly brand whose paper products and pencils can be planted to yield a variety of vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Harita Mehta spoke to Renuka Shah about her initiative.
An interior stylist by profession, Renuka Shah was always interested in eco-friendly products.
Following her maternity break after the birth of her first child, she began to explore other initiatives.
“We researched and came up with the idea of seed paper,” she says.
That is how ‘Jalebi’ was born.
Shah founded Jalebi in 2014. It is an eco-friendly brand where Shah has created a smorgasbord of paper products like cards and wrapping paper and pencils that once used can be planted to yield a variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers.
Based in Mumbai, India, Renuka started out by seeking out manufacturing options. She needed an exporter of seed paper. However, export-quality seed paper had its own pitfalls, including weather — after all, plants can only grow in the right weather.
“India is a tropical country, while the paper was meant for cold countries. We also had to keep the price range in mind,” she says.
Renuka gradually found a more cost-effective unit to cater to her specific needs, and also expanded the product line to include pencils made from newspapers with seed bombs at the bottom.
Here’s her story and interview by Harita Mehta.
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