Bengaluru  :

In a mission to combat the issue of waste disposal faced by India, three Master of Business Administration (MBA) students from Indian Institute of Management – Bangalore (IIM-B) have developed a bio-degradable packaging material. This is to substitute single-use plastic.Jinit Dharia, Mit Parekh and Yash Parekh won the national finals of ‘The Ultimate Pitch 4.0’, a competition organised by Reliance Industries Limited.

“Our product is a packaging material made from agricultural waste and Mycelium, which is the vegetative part of mushroom. It will act as a glue and bind the substrate together. It is fully bio-degradable as compared to thermocol packaging, which take years to decompose,” said Yash.

The team won a cash prize of `4.5 lakh and have reached out to various scientists to develop it further. “We will take the help of two national incubation centres and scientists to create a commercially viable product. The incubators will help us source raw material to create it. Developing a product prototype will take another three months,” he said.  Once they scale it up, the students plan to promote the product among microentrepreneurs in rural areas surrounding industrial belts in the country.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / February 19th, 2019