Imagine a pencil
that could grow into a sapling after you discard it. Or a pencil made of old
newspapers, actually water-resistant. Yes, they are real, and available.
G. Pramod Kumar,
an MBA-turned entrepreneur set up Samiksha Enterprises and makes Rainbow Paper
Pencils. The idea was born after a reflection on the philosophy of pencils, and
a desire to start his own business. Help came from his cousin a machine manufacturer
in Mumbai. Now his unit adds to the rhythmic click-clack in the weavers' colony
at Nelapatla village here.
The pencils that
Mr. Kumar makes have only eco-friendly, natural ingredients – gum, newsprint
paper and lead. Moreover, the equipment used is as mundane as the ingredients -
pencil roller, polisher and cutter.
Probably a first
in Telangana, Mr. Kumar says, four 7-inch paper pencils can be produced from a
centre-spread of a newspaper. And about 12 kg old newspapers, or a below 50 gsm
(grams per square metre, indicating the lightness or heaviness of the paper)
writing and printing paper could produce 2,400 pencils. That is the equivalent
to a whole tree's production when chopped down. Rainbow Paper Pencils are
priced between Rs. 5 and Rs. 10 each for a wide range including newspaper
pencils, white and rainbow coloured pencils, velvet-finished and plantable seed
pencils. Interestingly, plantable seed pencils - a first innovation of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States - have a bio-degradable
capsule filled with seeds at the tip, instead of a rubber. Kumar is replicating
the idea. His idea of printing the newsprint with the seven rainbow colours,
producing layered pigments when the pencil is sharpened, is his registered
Trade Mark.
Supported by the
Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), the year-old start-up
also encourages local women SHGs (Self Help Groups) to earn a decent income by
being part of it. "Using a flocking machine, four pencils can be finished
in velvet in 30 seconds. At 60 paise per pencil, women can earn up to Rs. 9,000
a month," he says.
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/pencils-that-carry-seeds-script-a-success-story/article23345524.ece
