Founded in 2019 La Fabrica Craft provides eco-friendly, sustainable packaging items. Their products are not only bio-degradable but also providing a source of income to women through self-help groups.
Sachin Gangadharan, Co-founder said, ” We are a biodegradable packaging company and help brands and companies make the shift to biodegradable packaging. We manufacture, design and distribute biodegradable products.”
He further said, “We offer a variety of products which are made mostly from carbon-neutral practices. We have designed paper bags which can carry up to 10 kgs of weight, bags which can be folded to fit in a pocket. We also offer masks, which are completely biodegradable and have an interchangeable filter as well. All these paper products can be recycled. However, for biopolymers, recycling is not an option but they can be used as compost.”
Gangadharan said, “We have developed a program called Community Development Scheme where we will be working with SHG’s or community groups to assemble women’s group to produce/ manufacture LaFabrica Craft designed consumer products. Our first product to create such an ecosystem is Daily Fold Bags. All of our Daily Fold bags are handmade using an assembly line method and employ local self-help groups and women-led organisations. The LaFabrica Support Scheme is designed to stimulate long term employment and provide communities with all of the necessary tools & training to sustain their own packaging needs.”
Talking about the importance of biodegradable packaging over traditional packaging, Gangadharan mentioned, “The idea behind biodegradable packaging is that the item after being discarded should return to nature. The important thing is that the packaging should perish, which is not possible for items like plastic that end up in landfills. The market for non-renewable products such as plastics is huge and the costs are low because of easy availability. Biodegradable products on the other hand are made out of recyclable materials and they can be inexpensive as well, provided that they are manufactured on a large scale.”
Talking about the future plans, he said, “Given that our organisation is at a nascent stage we are still assessing how impactful we can be. However, if we can switch even 1 per cent of the plastic industry to biodegradable alternatives, we would consider it a success.”
Written by: Aaron Dias