At an age when most youngsters are centered on schoolwork and social media, Ritvi Jain, a Grade 10 pupil at Trendy Faculty Vasant Vihar, has set her sights on one thing way more bold — fixing certainly one of India’s most persistent environmental and social issues.
By her initiative SansaarSite, Ritvi is difficult how building waste is managed and the way employee security is prioritized on constructing websites.
Her flagship undertaking, Suraksha Soles, is a exceptional instance of how youthful imaginative and prescient, sustainability, and social duty can intersect to create significant change.
It converts discarded PVC particles from building websites into sturdy, low-cost security footwear for building staff — defending each folks and the planet.
The inspiration got here from one thing Ritvi witnessed near residence. It was an thought born from statement.
Rising up round building websites, she noticed heaps of PVC waste — pipes, cables, flooring materials — being dumped or burned, and seen labourers usually working with out correct security sneakers.
The distinction between waste piling up and staff going unprotected struck her deeply. “It appeared mistaken that one downside couldn’t assist clear up the opposite,” she mirrored.
India’s building trade produces 10 to fifteen million tonnes of rubbish yearly, a big share of which is plastic, primarily PVC. With greater than 71 million staff employed within the sector — and practically 60 p.c missing correct security gear — the size of the problem is gigantic.
Employers sometimes spend ₹1,500 to ₹5,000 per employee every year on security gear, and a considerable portion goes towards footwear. The consequence: restricted budgets, poor-quality sneakers, and, too usually, staff left unprotected.
To handle this, Ritvi based SansaarSite, a sustainability-focused platform devoted to lowering construction-site waste via upcycling and recycling.
Its first undertaking, Suraksha Soles, takes a circular-economy method by reworking discarded PVC into inexpensive steel-toe gumboots.
In collaboration with Lancer Footwear, Ritvi designed a manufacturing system the place waste is collected from building websites, sorted, cleaned, and shredded into granules, that are then processed into PVC pellets.
These pellets turn out to be the bottom materials for manufacturing new boots. Every pair is examined for energy, sturdiness, and water resistance earlier than being distributed again to building staff — usually at practically half the market worth.
What units Suraksha Soles aside is its closed-loop mannequin. As soon as the boots attain the top of their lifespan (normally six to 12 months), they’re returned to the manufacturing unit for refurbishment.
The metal toe caps are eliminated and reused, whereas the PVC materials is recycled and blended with 20 p.c contemporary PVC to take care of high quality. The renewed boots are then redistributed, making certain the cycle continues with out including to landfill waste.
Ritvi’s first pilot undertaking, performed at a building web site in Sector 57, Gurgaon, yielded spectacular outcomes: 97 pairs of recycled gumboots produced, 120 kilograms of PVC waste reused, and every pair costing solely Rs. 570 to make.
The pilot not solely proved the undertaking’s feasibility but in addition demonstrated how environmental sustainability and employee welfare may go hand in hand.
The environmental advantages are tangible — much less PVC burned or buried, fewer microplastics launched, and lowered greenhouse-gas emissions from virgin plastic manufacturing.
Economically, employers get monetary savings whereas labourers acquire entry to sturdy, protecting footwear. The initiative additionally helps native employment, producing work in waste assortment, sorting, and manufacturing.
Thus far, Suraksha Soles has partnered with two building websites, and Ritvi goals to broaden to 4 extra by the top of the 12 months. Every new collaboration helps multiply each the environmental and social advantages of her imaginative and prescient.
What makes Ritvi’s story really inspiring is her age. Balancing faculty research with web site visits, partnerships, and manufacturing coordination isn’t any small feat. But she manages it with a relaxed willpower that belies her years.
Her academics describe her as “deeply curious and relentlessly pushed,” whereas collaborators admire her professionalism and sense of objective.
By SansaarSite, Ritvi hopes to push India’s building sector towards accountable development — the place sustainability turns into an ordinary apply fairly than an afterthought.
Her work on Suraksha Soles has already began conversations about how youth-led innovation can drive company and neighborhood change.
As she places it, “Each step taken in a pair of Suraksha Soles is a step towards sustainability.”
In an period the place local weather anxiousness usually overshadows local weather motion, Ritvi Jain stands out as a younger changemaker proving that age isn’t any barrier to influence.
Her undertaking doesn’t simply recycle plastic — it reshapes mindsets, displaying that with creativity, braveness, and compassion, even a pupil could make the world’s greatest industries stroll just a little lighter on the planet.
Disclaimer:- This story has not been edited by SugerMint workers and offered by the company. SugerMint is not going to be accountable in any approach for the content material of this story.
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