The good earth

"The environment is my passion,” says Perses Bilimoria, regional director, Cobra Indian Beer Private Limited, who is also the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Earthsoul India Private Limited, which is India’s first and only internationally certified biodegradable and compostable products manufacturing company. Earthsoul produces a substitute for plastic bags and packaging.

Bilimoria is on the committee for plastics waste management at the Ministry for Environment and Forests in New Delhi. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board as well as the Central Pollution Control Board seek his advice regarding Earthsoul products. Bilimoria laments that the putting into practice of rules for environmental protection in India is "pathetic.” Committees formulate sets of rules but implementation is lax and inefficient. "It’s a huge minus,” he rues. "We in India have taken nature for granted — the sun will come up and set, there will be rain… It’s very important for people like us to create awareness, to bring up these issues and do whatever we can.”

"No more plastic bags polluting the earth for several hundred years… Transform your city’s trash into something good for the earth,” says the company’s website www.earthsoulindia.com "Earthsoul bags are ideal for compost. During the compost process micro-organisms attack and degrade the bag and the waste included in it at the same time… Composting is nature’s own recycling program… Earthsoul bag leaves no plastic polluting chemicals.” Earthsoul bags are made from natural raw material such as corn starch and cotton seeds. Besides wet waste compost bags, the products have environmental friendly usages, such as for food wrappers and cling film, fruit trays, cutlery, commercial bin liners, etc.

Environment-friendly Earthsoul bags;

Earthsoul filler packaging is a new packaging system developed by Novamont (Earthsoul India’s strategic partners) which solves the problem of expanded polystrene and polyurethane, the materials commonly used in packaging. Earthsoul – Fill is a new loose filler for packing which can be used for pharmaceutical products, laboratory apparatus, photographic equipment, domestic appliances, mass market goods, books… Made mainly of starch, the loose fillers are 100 percent biodegradable and water soluble, as per their website.

Besides Earthsoul India, Perses Bilimoria runs another business which has been in existence for 10 years — Minoo Bilimoria Trading Private Limited which makes bullet proof tyres. "Yes, it is difficult to find time for everything but I have very good teams,” he smiles.