On 13th February, the ‘Velim eco-friendly’ pencils, manufactured by Syamantaka Technologies, hit the markets of the state of Goa. These pencils, which have been made out of recycled newspapers, are the brainchild of Kaydence Rodrigues, a 12th grader, studying at the Vidya Vikas Academy. But what made an emerging entrepreneur come up with recyclable and eco-friendly pencils? The answer is simple as Rodrigues says, “Solve socio-economic and ecological concerns humanity and nature face”.
Velim Eco was started last year by Kaydence because of her love for the environment and people. The major reason behind Kaydence launching these eco-friendly pencils, made out of recycled newspaper, is to spread awareness about how plastic pens, which are usually used for writing, are hardly recyclable, and therefore, pose a threat to the environmental well-being. She believes it to be a dual-strategy to deal with environmental degradation i.e., recycling papers will deter companies from cutting trees and the recycled paper could be used to make pencils.
Behind introducing eco-friendly pencils, Rodrigues’ aim is to reduce the use of plastic pens, as she says that the uniqueness of these pencils is in the purpose behind the idea. “One of the greatest contributors to single-use plastic is plastic pens. Every year 2.4 billion plastic pens are brought to the market, according to data collected by our team. Unfortunately, 91 per cent of most plastic pens are not recycled”, states Kaydence.
She chose the name ‘Velim eco-friendly’ pencils for her product because Velim is her ancestral home. She has often seen newspapers being collected at the homes of her relatives. In Velim, people still read newspapers and that’s a good thing, but after a few days, the same newspapers become waste. So the aim of Velim Eco is to ensure newspapers don’t go into the bin and are used to make eco-friendly pencils.
“The name Velim is important here because like my parents, I want to put Velim and India’s name on the global map”, says Kaydence.
Currently, a team of 10 has been employed, who repurpose the waste newspapers into recycled pencils and they are paid 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. The aim to ensure that everyone in the chain of making eco-friendly pencils has an economic benefit. Kaydence and Velim Eco, eventually, we plan to set up a system in Goa where they will work with the panchayats and municipal councils to segregate the waste newspapers and buy them from the government bodies directly so that they can create employment in the villages and municipalities.
