Gigacorn microbial cement, hemp rebar, date waste for filtration membranes, and more: The Digest’s Top 8 Innovations for the week of March 4th

#5 Indian company makes tableware from leaves

In Hyderabad, India, a local company is making biodegradable tableware and packaging from fallen areca leaves and recycled paper.

“I call myself a waste person, because I really love waste,” Srikanth Bolla, who founded Bollant Industries in 2012 and is currently CEO, tells CNN. “I want to recycle all the waste that I can in this world.” The company, which purchases the leaves from famers and presses them into cutlery and tableware at seven manufacturing plants, is valued at $65 million. Investors include industrialist Ratan Tata.

India has been aggressively working to phase out single-use plastics, as the populous country grapples with a plastics waste crisis. Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged in 2019 to phase out single use plastic. The first phase of ban will come into effect this summer and target plastics with “low utility and high littering potential,” such as flags, lightweight bags and cutlery.

Bolla, who has been blind since birth, is also committed to social justice. A quarter of the company’s 400 employees have a disability. A Bollywood biopic about Bolla is in the works, with noted Indian actor Rajkummar Rao signed on to star.

More on the story, here.