Grow Nepal-Ecobag/Zerowaste
Plastic bags are one of the most detrimental items on natural pollution in our modern world. They take many decades to decompose, but might actually never really biodegrade because the materials they are made of are not recognized as food by microorganisms. So they might just decompose into microplastic particles and buildup in the environment such as marine life, eventually infiltrating every step in the food chain. A plastic bag might corrode within 10 to 100 years, but its negative environmental impact may last forever.
This is why we want to bring forward a change in society related to this topic. In many parts of the world people are still in a habit to use huge amounts of plastic bags for shopping, groceries, and packaging. We want to contribute a positive input to this matter with the support of cotton bag, jute bag production. Cotton bags and Jute bags are convenient, reusable, washable, and a very affordable alternative.
Grow Nepal helps our partner Digo Living to establish sustainable manufacturing of natural organic cotton bags and jute bags through financial, technical, and physical support.
Through this project we are generating new employments and allow the primarily female local artisan to improve their self-dependency, livelihood, and living standards.
Our organic cotton bags and jute bags are currently distributed to more than a hundred customers and resellers in the USA, Canada, Europe, and East Asian countries who use our cotton bags for shopping bag replacements and packing. We are hoping to expand our export client base even further as more countries are banning single-use plastic and plastic bags.
It’s difficult to believe that, in a country where 40 million people face hunger every day, so much food could go unconsumed. Perfectly good food is being wasted at every level of the supply chain: on the farm, during distribution, at the store, and in our homes. Most of the restaurants, bakeries, cafes throw away unsold but perfectly good and nutritious food on a daily basis. Unconsumed food strains the environment by wasting valuable resources like water and farmland. When 12 percent of American households are food insecure, reducing food waste by just 15 percent could provide enough sustenance to feed more than 25 million people, annually.
Nithin started his non-profit “Zero Waste Initiative” (https://0wasteinitiative.org/) with the aim to rescue food waste and reduce food insecurity while preserving the environmental sustainability. Growing up, he was always instructed about being conscious of food wastage. Once, while eating at a Bruegger’s bagel shop, Nithin observed that the surplus unsold bagels were discarded after store closure every day. These were good quality bagels, but simply made in excess. He reached out to several shelters and food banks to see if they would be willing to absorb those unsold bagels. Thus, he began daily operations collecting surplus bagels from one bagel store and delivering them to two charities. Meanwhile, COVID was having an unprecedented impact on the employment and economy, so he decided to accelerate the operations and reached out to more stores including Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. Getting approval and organizing food distribution to different non-profit organizations required a lot of advocacy on his part especially given the pandemic induced fear of the unknown alongside overcoming obstacles with regards to health risk.
Nithin constantly reaches out to high school students to recruit volunteers, trains them on the pickup and delivery procedures, coordinating between donation sources and recipients. Expanding to 7 student volunteers, his non-profit has rescued over $90,000 in wholesale value of baked goods such as bagels and donuts in just 9 months donating to various organizations and shelters. Nithin and his initiative has been featured in the media in community news articles and TV and has won recognition through the community service award by California's 74th state assembly district. Volunteers from “Zero Waste Initiative” pick up and deliver baked goods all seven days a week and are serving about 12 local and national organizations such as Salvation Army, Power of One Foundation, Share Our Selves, Families Forward etc. Hundreds of people include veterans, women, children, college students, seniors and poor benefit from these donations.
FURTHER INFORMATION:
o Webpage: https://0wasteinitiative.org/
o Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Zero-Waste-Initiative-101284821608050/
o Twitter link: @InitiativeWaste
o Instagram: zer0wasteinitiative
o Selected News Magazines and Television Articles on me and the "Zero Waste Initiative":
a. Voice of OC: https://voiceofoc.org/2020/07/irvine-high-school-students-fight-food-insecurity-by-tackling-food-waste/
b. India West Journal: https://www.indiawest.com/news/global_indian/irvine-indian-american-student-launched-zero-waste-initiative-donates-surplus-food-to-nonprofits/article_f7dc216e-9a01-11ea-a9e7-6b8a19cbc3bc.html?
fbclid=IwAR3aEPwH0hDOa4fWW6_40e5n--zcITYxRyU5dRCmCsSJVTNEZdYsIBLyTo4
c. Irvine Community News: https://irvinecommunitynewsandviews.org/meet-nithin-parthasarathy-northwood-high-school-student-founder-of-the-zero-waste-initiative/?fbclid=IwAR2qmzTXwIWwF64__NV3kwYBENCepPzzfxAeLK9OTZOUPxublkJjC7aVYg8
d. SPECTRUM 1 NEWS on TV: https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/human-interest/2020/08/27/an-irvine-teen-is-helping-make-sure-no-bagel-goes-to-waste