How Raw Pressery turned plastic waste into a savvy business plan

Raw Pressery has found a business savvy way to kill two birds with one stone – taking on the menace of plastic waste and converting it into an extension of the current business. 

Raw Pressery is taking a conscious step to mitigate the amount of plastic that’s getting dumped in our wastelands and oceans. Their new recycling initiative – Raw Cycle aims to transform empty plastic juice bottles into apparel. Seven Raw Pressery bottles can make 1 RawCycle T-shirt. 

The brand has already collected 1.2 million bottles for recycling and has recently launched the first edition of its RawCycle T-shirts that are made of 95 per cent recycled plastic polyester and 5 per cent dri-fit spandex. 

Anuj Rakyan, Managing Director & Founder of Raw Pressery

Atiya Rakyan, Chief RawCycle Officer-Raw Pressery

In conversation with Adgully, Atiya Rakyan, Chief RawCycle Officer at Raw Pressery and Anuj Rakyan, Managing Director & Founder of Raw Pressery, shared the details of their eco-friendly initiative as well as the growth strategy for the company. 

What prompted the RawCycle initiative? What is the thought behind it?
As a brand we believe in trust and transparency and our brand philosophy of ‘All good. No bad’ is extended from sourcing to production. We are a clean label brand and we believe in sustainable solutions. While we were always recycling our plastic waste at the factory we were asking ourselves the question of how we can make ourselves not just plastic neutral but also recycling positive. Many of our consumers are conscious to return their bottles which we then send further to our recycling partners. We wanted to educate consumers that proper waste management coupled with modern day innovations can prevent plastic from entering the seas unchecked. Also, there exists technology today that can convert this plastic into wearable apparel. 

We use plastic bottles for our juices as they are cold-pressed, never pasteurised and undergo high water pressure processing (HPP) technology for preserving the juice. Plastic is the only element that can sustain the pressure, glass cannot withstand the high pressure. Any juice that’s in a tetrapak or a glass bottle is pasteurised in order to get shelf life and pasteurising impacts the nutritional value of the juice. Our juices are never boiled or pasteurised to preserve nutrition value in the juices. 

Glass is also heavier and requires more fuel energy to transport impacting the environment with higher carbon footprint. These facts made us think hard for an innovative solution and find creative ways to effectively manage waste plastic. 

What is your strategy for this campaign?
Our primary goal is to mitigate the amount of plastic that’s getting dumped in our wastelands and oceans. Seven Raw Pressery bottles make 1 RawCycled T-shirt. From the time we started, we have successfully collected 1.2 million bottles. Currently, it’s a drop in the ocean, but every little drop counts. 

RawCycled is an ‘All Good. No Bad’ initiative by Raw Pressery and sits very much at the heart of our brand’s philosophy.  

From the very beginning at Raw Pressery, we take action to be part of the solution and that’s why we decided to transform waste in to wear by collecting used bottles and recycling them into apparel. We believe by simply following our core philosophy of being ‘All Good. No Bad’ with which we can impact the brand image in much positive manner and meaningfully impact people’s lives. 

How are you collecting the Raw Pressery bottles?
We want to involve maximum people in our initiative by not just wearing the T-shirt, but also in helping manage waste in the most efficient way. Anyone who has more than 20 empty bottles, our team will get them collected to start the recycling process. You simply have to visit the RawCycled website (www.rawcycled.com) and fill up a form under the ‘Start Recycling’ section. Alternatively, you can also join the RawCycled revolution with as little as 1 bottle by sending us the same at the address mentioned on the website.

How did you come up with the idea of recycling plastic into T-shirts?
It’s no news that globally the rise of plastic usage with lack of responsible waste management is leading to an environment crisis. Even city municipalities spend crores in just managing the aftereffects of poor disposal of plastic, some even banning single use plastic completely. Over 300 million tonnes of plastic is created each year with India’s top 60 cities generating 15,000 tonnes of plastic every single day. As we all are aware, this unmanaged waste in our eco-system wreaks havoc on international biodiversity. With a growing eco-conscious community and global thought leaders now entering the conversation, there is hope to provide innovative solutions to waste management, and in turn, create a circular economy.

What is the commitment of the brand to the environment? Will we be seeing this thought being carried forward in the future?
The brand has already collected 1.2 million bottles for recycling and has recently launched the first edition of its RawCycle T-shirts. We will soon be setting up collection centres and make it easier for our customers to return their empty bottles for us to collect and recycle on their behalf. Given innovation is at the heart of anything and everything we do at Raw, you can expect an extended product line of althleisure, which will be made from recycled raw Pressery bottles. 

What are the touch points of the campaign?
Our primary touch point is digital, followed by events and experiential marketing.  

All the creative work, including the T-shirts, are designed keeping in mind the ‘All Good. No Bad’ philosophy of the mother brand Raw Pressery. The idea is to keep it simple, conversational, authentic, effortless and edgy. We will make long form content to bring alive the core purpose and educate people about the process that converts the trash to apparel. 

The first step of change is having the conversation. At Raw Pressery, we have conversations with customers on benefits of cold pressed vis-à-vis heated juices, no added sugar, not from concentrate and thereby communicating how we are differentiated. Along the way we also ensure we address each and every query that comes our way to educate, inform and clarify doubts of consumers. The same way we are encouraging all conversations and giving people simple steps to make the change.