A start-up from Tamil Nadu, India, has won an award for innovation in textile waste management

17th August 2021, Mumbai:

Re-Tailors, a waste management start-up located in Trichy, has gotten a lot of attention after winning the Tamil Nadu Student Innovators (TNSI) 2020 award from the state's Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation Institute (EDII).

The state government has given the startup a cash reward of Rs. 1 lakh. Shrinidhi Umanathan, a final-year M.Com student at Cauvery College for Women in Trichy, is believed to have suggested Re-Tailors as a business idea.

The company's goal is to gather fabric scraps from tailor shops and wholesale textile units, clean them, and then come up with designs for household textile items including curtains, rugs, pillow coverings, and doormats. The final items are offered through e-commerce sites once they have been recycled. “If we don't collect the fabric scraps, the garbage would be a burden on the municipal government. The tailor shops gain as well, because we provide a way for them to get rid of their growing waste,” Umanathan explained.

Currently, the start-up employs about 50 freelancers, including 18 women and 18 people with disabilities (PWD) who have sewing machines. To sew the finished product, the freelancers are given a scrap of material and a design pattern.

“Faculties at our in-house incubation centre mentored the plan,” said Dr. V. Sujatha, Principal of Cauvery College for Women, in response to the development. Other students will be encouraged to pursue entrepreneurship as a result of the recognition that has come after multiple layers of scrutiny.”

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