Eco-Serve – Serving the food you love on eco-friendly cutlery
This festive season make a pledge to go as eco-friendly and nature loving as possible. It starts from a simple shift to papier-mâché or earthen idols instead of the plaster of Paris ones, minimise the use of thermocol and plastic for decorations, reduce the use of the loudspeakers or at least keep the decibels within permissible limits and last but not the least, switching from plastic and theromocol plates to biodegradable cutlery.
All you have to do is to start off with a checklist and research on reliable resources for the same. And if you’re getting stuck with regard to eco-friendly cutlery, there are companies such as Eco Serve that is here to help you with just that.
In our quest for eco-friendly and bio-degradable cutlery, The Lifestyle Portal came across Pune based ecopreneur Anindita Choudhury, the Founder of Eco-Serve who never allowed her ‘green spirit’ to fade away and has been working relentlessly to bring about this positive change even before the plastic ban took place in our country.
Read about her entrepreneurial journey right here:
How did it all begin?
“My childhood was spent in the lap of nature in Durgapur in West Bengal. Since I was a child, I had a keen interest in gardening, right from sowing seeds to picking fruits,” recalls Anindita.
After work and marriage, when she moved to Delhi, London and finally to Pune where she continued her gardening experiments.
As she finally made Pune her home, she started working as a consultant and had to frequently travel to Kerala and Coimbatore. It was here that she came across earthy Areca plates made by the village women that left her mesmerised.
“I almost left a portion of my heart there as I travelled back home to Pune yearning to connect with these people. Even when I was expecting, I aspired to do something eco-friendly and meaningful that would connect me with the ‘green spirit’,” adds Anindita.
Soon after the birth of her twin baby boys, Anindita joined a plastic recycling group called Rudra where she tried to create awareness about the importance of recycling in her society.
“I started off with two missions – ‘Mission Green’ and ‘Save Water Save Lives’, which got recognition from young and old alike. Through these initiatives, we created awareness about saving water in our area. We also involved kids in our initiatives through plantation drives, street plays and marches with slogans,” smiles Anindita.
Finding an investor & then the branding
Finally, a second trip to South India in 2016 rekindled her passion and Anindita decided to revive an old Areca factory along with a close friend who pitched in as a silent investor. And in October 2016 Anindita finally launched her Areca plates under her brand name and so Ecoserve.
“My passion for environment and my urge to create a green road to connect eco-friendly products with each and every household and my desire to promote an environmentally friendly way of life gave birth to the idea of creating an eco-friendly business and that’s how I decided to launch my own earth-friendly brand EcoServe,” says Anindita and she fondly adds – Eco-Serve delivered its first ‘Green Baby’. She is stylish and robust and completely non-toxic, Areca nut palm leaf dinnerware.
About Ecoserve and its philosophy
Anindita’s main thought process of launching an eco-friendly dinnerware range was to provide people with a healthy alternative to plastics and other disposable dinnerware which is one of the big causes of deadly disease like cancer, kidney stones and even neurological problems. Usage of unhealthy thermocol plates not only affects our health but also results in polluting the environment.
Eco Serve Areca nut dinnerware sets not only help in reducing our dependency on plastic products but also help in moulding the psyche of people towards safe eco-friendly biodegradable and earth-friendly substitutes. Eco Serve strongly believes in a philosophy of safe eco-dining Dinnerware and lives up to its motto of ‘safe for you, safer for the planet’
“My products are completely eco-friendly and are 100% biodegradable and compostable. In fact, unlike any other biodegradable material Areca Nut adds 15% more fertility to the soil,” adds Anindita.
Challenges faced
The production cost of any eco-friendly material cannot be matched with plastics. Sadly, people tend to compare rates and in this matter, Areca dinnerware can never be as cheap as plastic.
As Anindita explains, “I have a limited network at the moment so I cannot spread across the awareness too much. Being a sole proprietor many a times marketing of my products dealing with clients developing my brand and also getting financial stability becomes an issue.”
She further adds, “I would also like to increase my network or reach not by the usual distributor-dealer network instead would like to make my own new supply chain management with small educated resellers rather than illiterate wholesale dealers. It is a challenge to go for bulk or volume in terms of sale. Also to approach corporates and big hotels on my own takes a lot of effort and is very time consuming and often those leads do not get converted. In fact, getting connected to the right set of people and spreading awareness about Eco-Serve is a big challenge.”
Areca nut product attributes
Anindita takes pride in sharing, “My green baby is elegant and 100% natural, wood-like finish. Her strength to withstand hot and cold food and liquids makes her the showstopper of disposable dinnerware. She is pure, devoid of any harmful chemicals, glues or adhesives and is completely natural as she is born out of fallen leaves and crystal clear water. Eco-Serve dinnerware adds that extra green flavour to your parties and festivity.”
Her second product – Eco ware- Sabaii grass tableware
To complement with their Areca nut biodegradable dinner sets, and to make more people aware of the eco-friendly substitutes that can replace plastic, Anindita started a completely new range in Sabaii grass tableware. This Sabaii grass dinnerware is made from needle-sharp golden grass and is 100% biodegradable. They are beautifully hand woven into beautiful items like table mats, coasters, runners, planters, bags, laundry baskets, gift baskets, roti baskets etc.
Her purpose behind using sabaii grass homeware items is to contribute to this rural initiative that helps revive the glorious eco-friendly handicraft industry of Odisha. This beautiful handicraft gives people a lovely range of eco-friendly decor items and also enables economic and social uplifting of the tribal artisan community.
How Eco-Serve is different from others
The brand strategy of Eco-Serve is fundamentally different from the others in this league. As the primary motive of Eco-Serve is to bring about a change in people’s life.
“We have around 25 items in eco-friendly dinnerwear. The pricing of areca ranges from INR 30 for a set of 12 bowls to around INR 100 for a set of 12 plates. We have a lovely range of Birchwood knives and forks which are a perfect replacement of plastic spoons and beautiful takeaway containers in various sizes from 250 to 1000 ml. We are also in a process of expanding and going in for takeaway containers in sugarcane bagasse for salads and healthy food. At Eco-Serve we are also trying a different range of painted trays for gifting during Diwali where we’re employing village girls for the same,” adds Anindita.
In fact, Eco-Serve is also promoting a toxin-free lifestyle with their sabaii grass range that starts from coasters to pen stands, mats, planters, roti boxes, bathroom accessory, trays and bags.
Eco Serve may not be registered as a social enterprise, however, their main motive is to provide mass scale awareness about eco-friendly brands.
Eco Serves’ main clientele includes names like Loghouse, Chocolate biclate, Cake and cream, Bread story, Ribbons and balloons to name a few.
The motive of Eco-Serve as a brand
The purpose of Eco-Serve dinnerware is to create mass awareness and inform, educate and influence people to get over their habit of using unhealthy plastic/ thermocol.
Eco-Serve also aspires to motivate people and help them by moulding their psyche, so that they can take an informed decision and also make safe eco-friendly biodegradable substitutes as part of their life, thereby making them healthy and also contribute in creating a safer and a cleaner planet.
So the next time you’re planning on hosting a party or this upcoming festive season, make a conscious effort by opting for such eco-friendly cutlery and do your bit for the environment.
Contact Eco-Serve:
To get in touch with Anindita and place an order for Eco-Serve and Sabai Grass Tableware, click here: Ecopreneur.
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