This entrepreneur overcame a setback to take over her father’s passion project

It was the year 2016. Kavitha Rajan was a software engineer based in Coimbatore, working on a couple of digital marketing projects. Little did she know that she would shift gears one day and move from software to manufacturing. 

Kavitha’s father, V. S. Veerasawami, was running a wall putty manufacturing business in the city. The indiscriminate use of plastic and the harm it caused to the environment bothered him a lot. So, he began researching how eco-friendly alternative products could be developed to replace plastic. 

Two years of research led him to experiment with several raw materials, such as polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), processed starch, vegetable oil derivatives, and other non-plastic additives. He nearly converted his office into a lab where he conducted his experiments. He modified PVA and industrial starch and added certain non-plastic additives, thus creating a material that could be pelleted, blow-moulded, and made into bags. 

Ecofriendly alternative

The biodegradable pellets are water-soluble and can be blown into films and bags using the extrusion process. The pellets have a shelf life of two years and can be made into both transparent and coloured bags. 

Unfortunately, at this momentous phase in his life, Veeraswami was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. But this didn’t deter him and he went ahead and launched his company Green Tech Bio Products in 2018 to manufacture and sell water-soluble biodegradable bags. 

The company’s films and bags are used across industries as packaging material. Though the business moved at a slow pace, Veeraswami managed to bag a few orders until 2021 when he succumbed to his illness. 

Picking up the pieces

Though her father’s death was a big blow, Kavitha remained unflustered. In fact, she decided to rise to the challenge and take Veeraswami’s business forward. 

Kavitha was extremely close to her father and had helped him occasionally in his business, especially with respect to communication with potential clients, as he was not fluent in English. He also used to discuss with his daughter the formulations he had developed. 

When Veeraswami passed away, the family was faced with the big question of who would take his passion project forward.

“I was in a dilemma as to whether I should take this up (her father’s company) full-time. I didn’t know how I would manage the manufacturing part as I come from a software engineering background. But I saw Dad taking the project till the end of his life,” says Kavitha. 

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Diving into the bags business

Once Kavitha realised this, she had her answer. She decided to take over the business and dove right into it. Under Kavitha, the company also started manufacturing fabric bags. 

Sold under the brand name 'Green Plast', the company’s films and bags are primarily used in the agricultural chemical and pharmaceutical industries to package products. They are also used for wrapping sanitary napkins. 

The products have obtained certifications from the Central Institute of Petrochemicals and Engineering Technology, TUV, and Splash Test.

Kavitha says GreenPlast's products are toxin-free and don’t cause any harm to the environment. “Our product variants dissolve in cold, warm, or hot water, and the water can be reused for other purposes, except drinking,” she says.

Green Tech Bio Products has clients in India, Kenya, Dubai, and Chile. Some of the clients are Poseidon BioTech, Polythene Industries (Kenya), Amtrex Nature Care, Chemtica International (Chile), and a female hygiene startup. 

Going forward, the company plans to reach out to ecommerce companies to supply courier bags. 

Apart from the Coimbatore-based company, a few other global players such as EAS and H2OK manufacture water-soluble bags.

Kavitha says her company’s strength lies in its in-house manufacturing facility in Coimbatore. The company has a monthly capacity of producing 125 tonnes of pellets and 40 tonnes of bags. 

Ever since the nationwide ban on single-use plastic was announced, on July 1, the market opportunity for alternative products has grown and Kavitha wants to leverage it strongly. 

The entrepreneur says her father had made over 80 samples of different products. She plans to test them and roll them into the market one by one.

(The story has been updated to correct a typo.)