Video Credits: Waste-Ed

The pandemic of 2020 has resulted in a huge influx of innovators and designers across the country coming together to create products aimed to rethink and re-innovate our existing systems for a more sustainable future. One such story is that of a 14-year old student of Zilla Parishad High School (ZPHS), Chintalakunta, in Jogulamba-Gadwal district of Telangana- Srija, who, with the support of her mathematics teacher Mr. Augustien has inspired many.

Tinkering Sustainability

“Innovation for me begins when I think differently.” - Srija

From this ideology came an idea of producing biodegradable planting pots, in response to the desire of replacing the extensive use of plastic bags in her village nurseries which often remain littered around. “It was nice to witness many plants being grown but it was equally disturbing for me to imagine a huge chunk of plastic covers being used. We debated about plastic waste in our school and I wanted to replace plastic, but I had to find an alternative.”

During one such visit, Srija shares how she was digging a pit to plant a sapling when she found a polythene bag in the soil.

Upon further investigation, she realised, “...many people plant saplings along with the polythene bag, thinking that if they remove the cover, the soil around the roots will become loose and the plant will not survive. If they remove the polythene bag, there is no process of collecting them, leading them to either be planted along with the saplings or thrown around as garbage. Other problems are posed by this practice besides environmental hazards, including root coiling, less fibrous root formation, poor aeration and poor seedling growth”.

This incident inspired her to work on an alternative natural pulp that can be moulded into a pot, which can be planted along with the sapling, easily degradable into the soil.

Thus began the process of developing a mixture for producing these pots, and with the help of her classmate, K. Harikrishna, she began researching groundnut shells for the first trial of the pulp. Groundnut shells are readily available from a mill situated near her home. These groundnut shells are usually burnt or buried by the farmers, and repurposing them creates yet another prospect of sustainability.

The groundnut shells retain moisture for longer besides being a wonderful source of nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium.

Her first prototype began with grinding them in a mixer at home, adding water to make it into a pulp, and moulding it onto a water bottle to form a cup. Srija also credits her grandmother, who helped her figure out how to make the groundnut shell mixture firm with a binding ingredient.

“We buried it underground at school and monitored it regularly to determine how long it would take to disintegrate,” says Augustien, adding that it took less than 20 days.

Approaching T-Works

Srija and Augustien received multiple awards from the state and centre such as Telangana State Innovation Cell (TSIC) Inta-inta innovator and Srija from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in the category of innovation by school children.

Through TSIC, they approached T Works for productising their invention.

"Though we are from a small school in Telangana, T Works had belief in us. I shared my idea with them and they developed a machine through which production could be taken up on a large-scale," said Srija gleefully.

Srija began making five to six planters a day by hand, successfully planting over 80 saplings. However, she soon realized that with the help of machinery, she could increase production capacity and make 10,000 planters per month.

T Works demonstrated the mass production capability of the Biopress, a custom-built machine to manufacture biodegradable pots, called biopot.

The Biopress (version ‘4T’), was designed and developed by T-Works to scale up Srija’s innovative biopot which received recognition and awards from several quarters for its employment and environment sustainability potential.

The process of prototyping was done in two phases. Phase 1 explored a variety of 3D printed moulds to achieve the following:

Prototype and prove compression moulding technique
Try multiple mould configurations
Try multiple mold release mechanisms

*Various mould designs trialled by 3D printing them*

Phase 2 began after a successful proof of concept with 3D printed molds. The new moulds are made from CNC machined mild steel. These are used in conjunction with a fabricated frame and hydraulic jack for trials.
A linear guiding arrangement with hydraulic powerpack was fabricated to enable accurate molding. Jacket heaters are used for heating the pot for quick release and to cut drying time.

*Integrating heating elements with the mould*

Says Sujai Karampuri, CEO T Works - “Srija is one of the first innovators we helped under the Rural Innovation Development Program. Under the program, we take recognised and vetted rural innovations to market through technology and design interventions. In Srija’s case, we worked closely with her and her mentor Mr. Augustine to design and fabricate a machine capable of churning out the biopots in numbers. Their input was critical to design a machine that can be used in a village setting, for example by self help groups. This creates employment in rural areas and brings to life innovations by the locals themselves.”

Making the biopot manually had inherent drawbacks. The shape, size, weight, and structural properties would change beyond allowable limits from one piece to another. To overcome this, T Works helped Srija conduct research and experiments in a structured manner to identify the right ratios of ingredients and shapes of the pots.

*Initial days of burnt and deformed biopots*

At lower temperatures of around 80-100 deg C, curing time is around 20 mins with the pot inside the mold. At higher temperatures, charring, discolouration, and distortion in shape were observed. Need for proper guiding and pressing arrangement was observed with trials on the frame where misalignment was causing uneven thickness and disproportionate curing times.

*Uneven wall thicknesses because of misalignment*

After much trial and error, the final version of the Biopress arrangement was finished and tested in early September, 2021, acquiring desired results.

*Early trials using the steel mould giving promising results*

One Biopress 4T machine is capable of producing 6000 biopots per month per shift. A set of machines deployed on site can fulfil several tens of thousands of orders. The modular design allows for swappable moulds to allow for different sized planters. The Biopress design can be modified to produce up to 50,000 pots per month per machine per shift.

Designed and engineered by tinkerers, for tinkerers, the biopot is as easy to operate as just pulling a lever, requiring no extra skill or experience with machinery. The idea is to help reduce cognitive barriers and provide a reliable solution to replace plastic with a biodegradable product.

Support from school and the Government -

Incidentally, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao launched the sixth phase of the Haritha Haram programme on 25th June to increase green cover in the state. The state government plans to plant 230 crore saplings and has already planted 182 crore saplings so far.

*Srija (centre) with her mentor Augustine (standing behind her) presenting a sapling in a biopot to a delegation of Members of Parliament led by Dr. Shashi Tharoor on 7th September 2021*

With the aim to replace conventional polythene bags with the biodegradable pots in a large number, Srija and her mentor aim to reduce plastic usage by around two million tonnes every year throughout India.

“We have a program in our school— No Bag Day, which is observed once every month where we do a lot of reading and ideating to address community problems. One day a week, we take the pride of becoming a leader for our school or community,” Srija says, crediting her school to promote a culture of innovation and tinkering.

“These kids are helping the nation reduce pollution to some extent. Their association with T-Works can take the children to the next-level of their innovative ideas and work towards something better." - shared Srija’s mentor Augustine.

The students of ZPHS Chintalakunta are planning to start a nursery in the school to grow 100 saplings in biodegradable pots this year. They aim to produce more than 5,000 biodegradable pots and supply them to government nurseries and schools by 2021.

Srija has been honoured with a third prize from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in the category of innovation by school children.

“When you have the never ending desire to do good, the world walks with you and you are sure to receive helping hands to keep you driving" - Srija exclaims.

T Works is also assisting Srija in patenting her unique biopot formulation.

We wish Srija to keep inspiring millions with her innovative mind, upholding the sensitivity of consequences of tomorrow. We hope to help her and other such tinkerers in making their innovative ideas see the light of day.

If you are a tinkerer or an innovator with a project in mind, you can visit T-Works Foundation to explore and develop the project with our designers and engineers, or contact us at hello@tworks.in.