Our Focus

My team believes in the concept of a circular economy. The circular economy is a simple and natural process. It always existed in India. We have only innovated on it. Right now, people give their newspapers to waste newspaper collectors and get paid. The newspaper collector sells the waste newspapers. At the moment we collect newspapers from relatives and friends but we also buy from the waste newspapers collector. This is done in order to encourage the waste newspaper collector to collect more newspapers because there is a confirmed buyer.

We currently employ a team of 10 who repurposes the waste newspapers into recycled pencils and we pay them the cost of making the pencils in a format – cost per pencil. The ‘Velim’ eco-friendly pencils are then marketed and sold in retail stores that earn a percentage from the sale of the pencils. Our aim is to ensure that everyone in the chain of making eco-friendly pencils has an economic benefit.

Eventually, we plan to set up a system in Goa where we will work with the panchayats and municipal councils to segregate the waste newspapers and buy it from the government bodies directly so that they can create employment in the villages and municipalities.

We are currently manufacturing 2HB lead pencils. The rolling machine rolls the paper onto the lead that has been stuck to the paper by the worker. The pencils are kept in a drying box to ensure that the gum is stuck appropriately. The next process is to cut the extra pencils to 172 mm approximately and then the pencils are polished by the process of sanding for a smooth surface, following this, the pencils are printed on with eco-solvent ink.