New Delhi: From sunglasses to jewellery to metallic jackets – Pune-based designer Anish Malpani and his label ‘Without’ used chip packets and other impossible-to-recycle plastics in almost every aspect of their designs at the 5th annual Circular Design Challenge (CDC) organised by R|Elan TM in association with the United Nations in India.

CDC is India’s largest award for designers and entrepreneurs that recognises and promotes circularity, sustainability and innovation in the fashion and textile industries. The challenge culminated in a finale show at the UN House during Lakmé Fashion Week in partnership with FDCI.

Malpani was named the winner of the challenge, which went global for the first time this year. The runner-up of the competition was Felipe Fiallo from the European Union.

“It’s so inspiring to see all of the innovation and the ability of creative artists to merge something like fashion — which is fun, it’s about identity and creativity — with sustainability,” UN resident coordinator Shombi Sharp said at the finale show. “To understand the fashion industry can be part of the solution to protecting our planet.”

‘Without’ uses Malpani’s patent pending technology to extract material from waste and turn it into sunglasses. The multi-layered plastic packaging found in waste like packets of chips and chocolate wrappers are “impossible to recycle” and almost always end up in landfills and oceans, according to the label’s website.

Talking with The Wire, Malpani said he felt a call to do something more meaningful with his life while working in corporate finance in New York. He spent time in Guatemala and Nairobi, working with local entrepreneurs, before returning to India with a passion to work on the social and environmental causes of poverty.

Malpani was inspired to launch his startup after seeing the dangerous working conditions of waste pickers in his area and observing the environmental impacts of plastic waste.

“It's not just access to income or health care and education, but these are low-cost migrant workers with a life expectancy of 18 years of age. They work in waste without PPE, sometimes with the children on their backs,” Malpani said. “Not a fun situation at all.”

One of the main missions of ‘Without’ is to empower waste pickers. Malpani said the team currently consists of 17 members, including eight former waste pickers. For the waste pickers Malpani and his team work with, he said they try to help in multidimensional ways. So in addition to increasing income, he said the team helps waste pickers receive health care, provides scholarships to their children and helps make sure bank accounts are working.

“I don't think waste picking should exist as an occupation, but you can't displace [waste pickers] in negative ways. So how do you possibly displace them into their livelihoods?” Malpani said. “That was the goal. And then the hypothesis became how do you fundamentally increase the value and use that to empower ways out of poverty.”

As a part of his design, the frames of Malpani’s glasses have a QR code inside which people can scan to see where the waste came from and the story of the waste picker. Malpani said it has been humbling to hear stories from waste pickers he works with and hopes to help break the cycle of the profession.

Going forward, Malpani said he aims to expand past sunglasses and use the versatility of the material to make more jewellery and accessories like mobile phone cases and watch straps.

“Let's be honest, sunglasses are not going to solve the waste problem or waste picker issue in India or the world,” Malpani said. “But it's a very strong proof of concept: that you can take this impossible-to-recycle plastic waste, convert it into high quality materials and products while empowering waste pickers to have a better life, because it is their livelihood.”

He also plans to widen the reach of ‘Without’ by multiplying its recycling centres across India and, eventually, across the world.

“In the long run, we have to move volumes of material because that's the only way you can really make a dent from an environmental perspective, from a social perspective and from an economic perspective as well,” Malpani said.

As the winner of CDC, Malpani received Rs 15 lakh worth of funding, a six-month mentorship programme and a dedicated showcase at Lakmé Fashion Week x FDCI in March 2024.

Yasmeen Saadi is an intern at The Wire.

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