Do you remember the school activity, “Best From Waste?” Well, It was the fun and sometimes the most struggling part of our school life. Do we still make something best from waste? Unfortunately, no, But hold on! You know, there is a 16-year-old boy who decided to build a sustainable profession from this small school activity. But what provoked him to do so?
Well, when this boy noticed the sufferings and miseries of those homeless people who sleep without any blanket under the chilly weather of Delhi. Their sufferings and pain provoked him to stitch hopes for them.
So, this boy came up with a best-from-waste solution to provide them with much-needed warmth during the winter. Let’s read further to know more about this 16-year-old boy who is still in 12th class and still takes time to contribute to the welfare of these homeless people.
Project Jeans- Blue to Green – An Initiative Helping People by bringing out best from waste jeans.
The environment and human-friendly social initiative, Project Jeans was started by a 16-year-old boy, Nirvaan Somany in 2019. This 12th-grade student is extremely passionate and sensitive when it comes to nature and homeless people. Nirvaan Somany is a teenage boy with a thoughtful mind and kind heart.
With the idea of best from waste social initiative, Project Jeans, Nirvaan and his team collect old and discarded jeans and convert them into sleeping bags for homeless people who sleep on footpaths. With the aim to help the environment and suffering people, Nirvaan with his project jeans also runs an educational and corporate awareness campaign for advocating about the harmful impact of the fashion industry on the environment.
This concept and product were first dreamed of in 2019 as part of the Young Entrepreneurs Academy. Now that Nirvaan has taken the initiative, his project is well underway. To disseminate environmental awareness, Nirvaan also writes a monthly newsletter called “EnviroNotes” that is delivered to youngsters in government schools.
There are many schools, corporations and NGOs that are supporting Project Jeans and now, Nirvaan and his unique DIY Jeans, social initiative Project Jeans have five collection centres all over India such as Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata.
Till now, Nirvaan and his team have upcycled more than 1400 jeans into sleeping bags for the homeless and needy people and have distributed more than 900 bags to these people. For his environmentally friendly contribution, Nirvaan also has received allocates and awards such as the Diana Award, and the Excellence in Innovation award from the Environment Conservation Association Pune.
One Thought is enough to bring Change
No idea is big or small, Nirvaan has proved it. He turned the ordinary and small school activity into a ground-breaking humanitarian social initiative. But how did this idea of turning old and discarded jeans into sleeping bags come into his mind? What pushed him to choose jeans as his waste? However, there were two factors.
1. Reminded his responsibility towards the environment
The story of Project Jeans started with a thought-provoking fact that to prepare one single pair of jeans, 10,000 liters of water is required. I am sure most of us were unaware of this fact.
But unlike us, this fact shocked Nirvaan so much that he looked at his own collection of jeans and all he thought about was the enormous usage of water. Well, with every use, there comes the wastage too. With his curious mind, Nirvana took the measures that if jeans get discarded into the landfills then the loss of water and the damage to the environment will be huge.
He wanted to do something to save the environment from this destruction because, in today’s time, half of the population worldwide wears jeans as it is fast fashion. In his quest of finding the solution, Nirvaan does his research and he found out that the denim material has good insulating properties.
Creating Sleeping Bags for Homeless- Indeed Best from Waste
Understanding the advantages of the jeans material, Nirvaan came up with the simple school activity idea, “Best from Waste.” He knew the long life span of jeans but he also understood that people have no time to create anything best from waste. He not only observed the impact on the environment but he also witnessed how poor and needy people sleep on the footpath and suffer and shiver under the bridges during the chilly winters.
So he decided to take a step forward and implemented his idea to bring out the best from waste and discarded jeans and founded the Project Jeans. As mentioned, he turned those waste jeans into sleeping bags for homeless people. Indeed these sleeping bags are best from waste.
How this 12th-grade student Implement his idea of Best from Waste?
Isn’t it amusing how a 16-year-old boy had done all this? Just a plain simple idea of bringing the best from waste wasn’t enough but a good cause always finds support. With the support of a few corporates and helpful individuals, Nirvaan collected the 1000s of discarded jeans but turning those jeans into sleeping bag was the task.
Nirvaan took help from his mother and hired 10 women to stitch these sleeping bags. He himself tried and tested the prototype of those sleeping bags. To make those sleeping bags more warm and cushiony, he used the scraps from his mom’s clothing brand to fill in the sleeping bags. Again he implemented a simple strategy of bringing out the best from waste scraps.
This school Kid really contributed to society by implementing the basic school activity idea of “Best from Waste.” From just doing this activity of the best from waste for marks to creating an environment-friendly solution of sleeping bags for homeless people is remarkable.
Project Jeans is the best example of best from waste. This initiative taken by a 16-year-old boy set an inspiration for all the youngsters out there that no age is small when ideas are big.
We at Mad4india admire Nirvaan for taking up such a huge responsibility of contributing to the environment and helping poor people. If you want to know more about Project Jeans and create the best from-waste jeans you have, then do check out his website and Instagram
Feature Image- Canva, Projectjeans, Instagram
If you loved reading this unique story about this Nirvaan and his Project Jeans then do give a read to the story of 28-Year Old Indian Fighter Anshul Jubli All Set To Make History Again In UFC-294
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