Do you ever look at the brilliant packaging of the food you are eating? It’s almost as attractive as the food isn’t it? However, when it comes to the environment, this packaging may lose all of its charms.
The packaging industry is highly dependent on single-use plastic. Reducing this dependency and using recyclable, eco-friendly materials is the need of the hour.
Schmancy, a Bengaluru based start-up, has taken the initiative of reducing our plastic consumption by creating beautiful packages with recyclable paper.
Setting up for sustainability!
Take-out food is a big part of millennial culture. Most of the take-out food is delivered in harmful plastic packaging. Plastic molecules from the packaging mix with the food, causing various endocrine disorders.
Schmancy, founded in 2015 by Nikhil Parekh, provides food houses with recycled paper packaging that is both- friendly to the environment, and good for personal health.
Recognizing the opportunities
In 2013, When some of his friends came to him complaining about the lack of desirable sizes and designs in packaging, Nikhil realized that the packaging industry has a lot of untapped potentials. He came up with an idea to assist his friends by providing them with packaging, customized to their will.
The company was officially set up in 2015. It provides cafes and restaurants throughout Bengaluru with high-quality customized packaging. The company also provides its services for individuals looking to have a customized packaging for personal reasons.
A former software engineer, Nikhil’s family was already involved in the packaging business. He worked with them until 2012, after which he set to work on his own idea. Initially, he helped his friends with customized packaging for their bakeries and cafes. After so many years, the company now supplies to big players in the food industry like Swiggy, Curefit and Chai point and others like Zivme and Popsocket.
Helping businesses and environment, all at once
Schmancy mainly provides paper packaging to its customers. “We also provide plastic packaging, which is all biodegradable. Once the raw materials for our boxes are procured, they are then sent for customized printing and later assembled at our unit in Peenya in Bengaluru,” said Nikhil in an interview. The eco-friendly nature of Schmancy is what makes it a perfect choice for today’s woke millennial.
Unlike other companies involved in the packaging business, Schmancy tries to look out after the small businesses as well. It provides the same quality of packaging even in small quantities. This is really helpful for small businesses as they can get high quality customized and eco-friendly packaging, which is otherwise really harsh on their finances.
A tough battle in a long war
According to Nikhil, initially, it was a bit difficult to expand the business as the people were not aware of the need for sustainability. For decades, people have been using plastic as it is very cheap. Schmancy tried to break the shackles of single-use plastic. Over time, as awareness spread, businesses started to opt for sustainable materials despite the costs being a bit higher and their business started to soar.
Nikhil’s Schmancy aims to produce more sustainable packaging using materials like wheatgrass and bamboo. They want to reduce the plastic waste produced by India by multiple numbers.
