A Gurgaon resident, Sameera Satija is an environment crusader and has actively taken up the cause of cloth repurposing not just to reduce waste, but offer a sustainable means of support to those who need it the most.
It’s high time now that as a community we focus on various plausible ways to protect our environment and help our next generation breathe better!
Sameera focuses on sustainable practices and waste management to put her passion in action she founded Crockery Bank. It is a rare concept to demotivate the users of disposables, instead of use and throw plates and crockery she offers steel crockery for use to large social gatherings. To reduce plastic waste from the environment, she is now also actively and creatively working on cloth repurposing to shrink the textile waste and giving the discarded textile scraps a new lease of life and purpose.
Astitva – working towards a better tomorrow
Sameera volunteers as a Sustainability Advisor with Astitva, an environmental conservation organisation and community-based enterprise that aims to provide support to individuals and organisations to adopt ecologically sustainable practices to ensure the larger well-being of the community and the natural environment.
“Under Project Astitva, we hope to bring back lost practices from the past, be it the spirit of the community bonding, art and culture, repurposing, frugality or even environmental preservation,” says Sameera.
Astitva aims to utilise waste products including fabric to maximum capacity and create lifestyle & functional items, fashion jewellery, party decorations from textile waste.
Scraps no more
In its first-ever community project, the Astitva teams have come up with warm jackets-coats for dogs to keep Indie dog friends warm this winter. The team is making these coats with leftover fabric generated at tailoring units and boutiques. The cuttings or scraps of various garment fabrics otherwise end up at landfills adding to the environmental hazard which emits methane gas.
“Surprisingly, textile waste is the second-largest dry waste after plastic, which is lying in our landfills. So we are putting these lefts over cuttings to best use and serving two purposes at the same time,’’ she adds. Individuals are free to join the campaign by donating old bedsheets/leftover fabric.
Did you know the fashion industry creates an estimated 92 million tons of textile waste each year? Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles goes into landfill or is burned, globally.
Community Participation
For an idea to become a revolution, citizen and community participation is critical. Only when the society at large starts taking small steps towards a positive direction, can the idea achieve success.
Adopting sustainable practises has become of the need of the hour as consumerism is taking a toll on the natural resources depleting very fast. At this rate, we won’t be able to leave any resources for our children and future generation, which will be very unfair. We need to introspect and redesign our lifestyles.
It is high time we think before casually throwing away a pair of jeans because we have worn them for long or discard a shirt because the style is out of fashion. Recycle or repurpose it to add value and help make a difference in the environment. Every small step can go a long way in saving our Earth for the generations to come.
“As we are also aspiring to create a co-working community, we would be glad to call on the citizens to join us, share their creative ideas, visit us and together we will create something joyful out of waste to make the world a little better for the tomorrows to come.”
If you have any query relating to your household waste or want to do your bit to take this initiative forward, drop a message on Astitva’s Facebook Page www.facebook.com/astitva.trust or email on contact@astitva.org.
