Kerala woman turns coir waste into eco-friendly packaging for food, pharma & cosmetics

Kochi: Ardra Nair, a 29-year-old from Kerala, is tackling plastic waste and coir pollution with Greenamor Ventures, a startup that manufactures biodegradable, compostable packaging using coir waste and biopolymer.

Founded in November 2021, Greenamor Ventures upcycles locally available coir — a major byproduct from Alappuzha’s mat manufacturing industries — into plastic-like packaging for cosmetics, food, and pharmaceutical products. Coir fibres, typically 1 to 2 mm in size, often end up in landfills where they decompose slowly due to high lignin content and risk leaching into water bodies.

The idea took shape while Ardra was pursuing her master’s in Engineering in Kerala. A BIRAC social innovation fellowship helped fund early research. “I was intrigued by the amounts of coir waste generated in industries across Kerala. My first thought was ‘why not design a project wherein these fibres could be used to create something of value?’” she said.

Inspiration also came from a personal observation: dump yards outside her college hostel were perpetually filled with cosmetic packaging. Later trips to Ladakh and Kashmir revealed similar pollution in pristine water bodies. That pushed her to tie both problems — coir waste and packaging waste — into one solution.