As nation speaks about ban of single use plastics, lot of alternative products, kitchen accessories to plastics hitting market place

Hyderabad, October 4, 2019: Little gestures protect environment. Metal and Glass bottle can help us care for the environment. Sharmila Jain, CEO, Metalika Industries says.

Plastics is being replaced slowly with Stainless steel utensils. Steel is a friendly material with the food. Metallic Industries, Cello and many other companies are showcasing such replacement and substitute kitchen products particularly water bottles for the plastic in Freedom Healthy Cooking Oils Kitchen India exhibition.

Metallika is introducing handcrafted water bottles, copper water bottles, Handcrafted Water Jugs, Laminated Copper Water Bottles and Designer Kettle as a replacement product to plastic pet water bottles.

Paper, Re-usable, Bamboo, Copper, Stainless Straws are coming in place of Plastic Drinking Straws say Packaging Experts. According to experts many eateries and food chains in India like McDonald, Burger King, Ohris, Grand Kakatiya, KFC Fried Chicken, Starbucks, Marriott, MGM, Fourseasons, Taj Palace, Hotel Paradise, Antara and many converted into Paper Straws. Paper Straw making may become a household business soon in Telangana and across the country. Nearly 3.5 million to 5 million straws are said to be used in Telangana state every day. And the number goes up in the summer as more and more people drink cool beverages. Plastic Straws are causing more harm to the environment says a Packaging Expert. Future is only for bio-degradable straws.

Food delivery apps Swiggy and Uber Eats seen delivering paper straws. Even in marriage function where plastic straws are replaced by paper straws. A banquet department personnel at Grand Kakatiya hotel in Hyderabad informs that they stopped using plastic straws.

Food, cooking, utensils, residential and commercial kitchen products and banquets all are going green and natural. Age old cooking process, use of clay utensils is catching up. Traditional utensils are being replaced slowly but steadily with more eco-friendly products. Eating in natural utensils made from clay is slowly picking up. Reflecting this trend, a company has introduced many clay kitchen products.. These include natural, electricity free refrigerator made of entirely clay, Mitticool Cooker, Clay Pressure Cooker, Microwave friendly clay utensils, clay dinner plates, eco-friendly clay water filter, Oil Free Cooking Mitticool Non Stick Tawa and many more.

Another revolution in cooking is Greenway Stove, that cooks without smoke. This biomass stove which is sold in excess of 4 lakhs pieces in the last five years, replaces traditional mud stoves (chulhas). It is introduced by a startup company Greenway Grameen Infra. This delivers 65% fuel savings and 70% smoke reduction while working on all solid biomass fuels.

Ankit Mathur, Neha Juneja and Shoeb Kazi three engineers have built this stove using patented air regulation technology, that minimizes noxious emissions leading to better health, savings, environmental benefits and everyday convenience. This stove is so sleek and is portable.

It is not just homes, but, even commercial kitchens, restaurants and banquets are going green. IndiBlaze, India’s first FCD Chain of Fast Casual Restaurants which opened doors in Hitech introduced eco friendly cutlery and crockery. It serves food in edible bowls.

Green Banqueting is also catching up. When the whole world is talking about green initiatives, how can Banqueting be left behind? The Park Hotel located at Necklace Road in city considered to be most eco-friendly construction. It Is India’s first LEED Gold certified green hotel.

ITC Hotels champions green banqueting. Banquets turn business and celebrations into fun, inclusive events, where people come together to interact, work with one another, share ideas and rejoice. ITC Hotels invites its guests to take on the mantle of responsibility. With Green Banqueting Design, it addresses the issue of waste at events and work with guests on saving energy and minimizing the use of unnecessary material etc..

Some of the green banqueting initiatives it took up include e- invites: e- invitations are suggested instead of paper invites. Same can be put up on the website of the organisers, if some people delete the e- invite, they can always go back to the website to check the invitation it says.

Consumer Voice which organsied a Media Dialogue on “Hypertension Management and Elimination of Trans Fatty Acids in Telangana” recently at Hotel Hyatt Place, Banjara Hills came out with eco friendly name tags made up of Jute.

PRAXIS8 at its just concluded PR Professionals meet at Goa shunned total plastics. With the help of the Venue Partner Hyatt Grand at Goa they shunned total plastic bottles. They used only Water Bottles, Water Glasses. Many five star hotels in Hyderabad have already stopped using Plastic PET Bottles. Instead they are using just Glass Bottles. Even the tea is now served in Glass Glasses in Hotels like The Park Necklace Road, Hyatt Place, Park Hyatt.

Aparna Cyber Life in Nallgandla in the city came up with an idea of “Bring Your Own Plate” to curb usage of “Use and throw plastic plates”. The residents of the 73 flats celebrate some common festival like Ganesh Chaturthi and others. In order to ensure Zero Waste, they have been asking their residents to bring their own plates. So also for this Ganesh Festival. The Bring Your Own Plate Dinner ensures Zero Waste. Parthani Towers in Musheerabad also encouraged its residents to bring their own plates during the recent Ganesh Festival Celebrations. This green party idea has got appreciation from lot of people.

Morsel & Tisane, The LuxuryTea Room, the first of its kind of concept which inaugurated recently in the city by GMFI Food Services LLP offers eco friendly T-Bags, the tea-bags made of cotton. These plastic free bags are introduced as there is a lot of consumer awareness about Tea Bags and their plastic contents which are not recyclable or biodegradable. So, even when you put all your used tea bags in the food waste or compost heap, it can lead to plastic pollution, as not all of it will be broken down. So the Cotton Tea bags are cool and preferred more now.

An Innovative eco friendly shaving product was introduced by Rural Entrepreneurship lead by wife and husband Andhra Pradesh sometime ago. Bodha Organic Disposable Shaving Brush is one of the few innovative products brought out by wife and husband startup company was on display among others at The August Fest held in the city sometime ago. It is a first of its kind of an invention to save human from contracting dreaded viruses or diseases, informed Sowjanya. Bodha Organic Disposable Shaving brush is a single use shave hygienic eco- friendly product. It ensures safety from spread of hepatitis, skin allergy other contagious viruses informed Prasad. The fiber bristles of the brush are made out of banana tree.

Incense Sticks(Agar Battis) are made from recycled and waste flowers picked up from temples. DEAL—Destination for Essential Alternative, a Hyderabad start-up has come out with recycled Agarbathis (Incense sticks) made out of used flowers from temples. Every day thousands go to temple and offer lot of flowers to God that he fulfill our desires. While many flowers are dumped in the backyards of the temples in the landfills, some are put to good use. Some shrines with the help of innovative startups are putting them to use. The result of such efforts are these Incense Sticks says S.Bharath Kumar of DEAL

The same startup is also offering a greener alternative to the billions of plastic toothbrushes discarded every year across the globe. These are a good quality tooth brushes which are 100% bio-degradable and their handles are made out of bamboo. They are packaged and presented so well that they can be grabbed instantly.

ForestKraft gives a second life to flowers. While the whole world is doing business with fresh flowers, Sahlu Walia is doing business with natural flowers and fruits. I give the second lease of life to flowers declares Shalu Walia of ForestKraft. A daughter of a Defense officer I lived my life close to nature and near forests. The dry, natural material from gardens, forests and botanical material gathered and give the fresh lease of life as thoranams, candle stands, centerpieces, she informs.

I use the same natural, dried flowers for bouquets for birthdays, so that bouquet stays for a year or more and the recipient remembers the sender for a long time. Unlike fresh flowers in the bouquets, these dried flowers have a long shelf life. Everyone is doing business with fresh flowers, I do with dried, natural flowers and fruits, add, Shalu. She makes baskets from water hyacinth found in several water bodies like Hussain Sagar Lake. It is my business venture now after 16 years of corporate life says Shalu, from Mumbai. Everyone looks up, and I look down for botanical material, she adds. Growing, processing and selling dried flowers could put many women on the path to self-employment, independence, and financial freedom. Many women like Shalu Walia are thinking differently.