Sustainability

Group Members
- Nishita Tamrakar
- Nirali
- Nitya
- Nikita Singh
 Sustainability

—sustainability is defined as: “the integration of environmental health, social equity and
economic vitality in order to create thriving, healthy, diverse and resilient communities
for this generation and generations to come. The practice of sustainability recognizes
how these issues are interconnected and requires a systems approach and an
acknowledgement of complexity.”
Sustainable practices support ecological, human, and economic health and vitality.
Sustainability presumes that resources are finite, and should be used conservatively and
wisely with a view to long-term priorities and consequences of the ways in which
resources are used. In simplest terms, sustainability is about our children and our
grandchildren, and the world we will leave them.
Case Study -
To think of an innovative idea to upcycle the 1 tonne of textile waste from an export
house.
The waste consists of unstitched rejected panels of t-shirts (single jersey cotton
fabric) in 5 colours - white, navy blue, dull pink, maroon and sky blue in same
quantity.
Textile Waste
Textile waste is produced in every phase of the textile manufacturing process like
spinning, weaving, dyeing, finishing, garment manufacturing and even at the
consumer end. There are two types of testile waste-
1. Soft waste: Generated from combing, drawing and spinning.
2. Hard waste: Generated after spinning and twisting, weaving and knitting.

Pre-consumer textiles waste: These 1 ton of unstitched t-shirts are the part of
production waste and are generated from the first phase of the supply chain. The
consumer never sees pre-consumer waste produced during industrial processing of
textiles by the manufacturer. It includes scraps, damaged or defective material samples,
fabric selvages and leftover fabric from the cutting process. On an average, about 15 per
cent of fabric used in garment production is cut, discarded and wasted.
Solution

Upcycling the waste T-shirts into stuffed toys for pet dogs
For dogs, toys are not a luxury – they are a necessity. Toys help fight boredom,
provide a mental and physical outlet for energy, and keep dogs comforted in new
and unfamiliar situations.
For dogs stuffed toys fulfill variety of roles from prey to siblings. They carry their
plushy around with them wherever they go and play with them by shaking, chewing
and loving them.
One of the most important reason is that their stuffed animals relieve their gum and
toothache and are best for their dental health.
Problems with the existing toys

Balls, rope toys, and chew toys are popular choices by the dog's owners.
but most of the toys are made from toxic materials and contain unsafe levels of lead, BPA, or other chemicals.
Many of them have a strong chemical strong chemical smell which can be very dangerous for the dogs as they
can chew them and eat them away.
Fillings and materials – Soft toys are not indestructible. Most of them contain dangerous fillingspolypropylene
beads and pollyfill which are not digestible.
They contain small parts (such as eyes, ribbons, or strings) that could be chewed off and ingested.
Search and Destroy – Some dogs are driven to rip any toy to shreds and pulls the stuffing out of toys.
Rawhide – Strong chewers may tear the rawhide into large chunks which can become lodged in the intestine,
requiring surgery to remove.
Tennis balls – Balls can become lodged in the dog’s throat, blocking the airway and being nearly impossible to
remove.
Tennis balls are also not indestructible, and pieces can be caught in dog’s intestinal tract.
even chewing on tennis balls may be problematic due to the rough surface, which may be abrasive to your dog’s
teeth, wearing down the protective coating.
Result Chain

The results chain is a description of the

various stages of an intervention that
lead to the changes that are intended –
from the inputs at the start, to the end
effects at a societal level for the
beneficiaries.
The first three links in the chain are under
the control of the implementer and
present no major issues for monitoring
and quality management.
Inputs

Inputs are the financial, human, and material resources used for the development intervention.
For this project we will be developing our products with the help of unemployed/unprivileged artisans or by giving
the proposals to NGOs who are helping such artisans who are affected due to covid.
Our material resources will be waste T-shirts which will be used for the construction of the toys plus the filling of
the toys will also be with the same.
Other resources - Threads, Needles, Stitching Machines, Pattern Sheets etc.
Activities

These are the various actions undertaken to transform inputs (waste t-shirts) into outputs
(Dog's Toys) -
Designing of the toys keeping in my the needs of dogs which will include mind mapping,
mood board, inspiration, pattern making , teaching the construction to the artisans,
developing of the samples, and then final product.
After the final product , quality check will be done.
Stuffed Cat
Every dog loves to play with stuffed animals.
it depends upon their gender and age, how
they handle them.
This plushy cat can be used by all breeds and
gender as female dogs will play with this
because she experience mothering behavior
when she is going through heat .
It is also suitable for the aggressive dogs who
like to practice their killing instincts on every
stuffed toys they have.
it won't shred easily as the outer layer will be
layered 5 times to make it durable plus the
stuffing would be made with scraps of t-shirts
Our most important aim is to make toys
durable and long lasting and thus it would be
made layered.
Rope toys

These are inspired from the

basic rope toys available in
market which help the dogs for
their theething.
But the ones available in the
market are made up of plastic
ropes or other synthetic
material.
we would be making the ropes
toys by cutting thin strips of t-
shirts and will convert them into
ropes by twisting and tying and
then will use macrame and
knotting techniques to finish the
products.
Interactive toys

This carrot toy will be made with the same

technique using 5 layers and will be stuffed with
scraps.
This is made for their sniff training and brainwork.
This interactive toy will soft and won't hurt their
skin unlike other plastic toys available in the
market.
Owner can keep the carrots inside the cylindrical
tubes so that dogs can dig them out and keep
them back.
This will train them for slow eating habits.
 Fabric frisbee

Frisbees are the throwing device which

help the dogs to keep active and are
designed so that your dog can grip the
things easily.
When these are thrown away by the
owners, they run and bring them back
happily, but these plastic frisbees
often hurt them and also they contain
BPA and other chemicals which are
very harmful.
Our fabric frisbee is completely
sustainable and non toxic and will not
hurt the dogs when thrown away.
These are stiff enough to fly high even
though they are not made up of plastic
as fabric will be layered several times
to give the thickness and will also be
stuffed .
 Snuffle mat for dog

A type of dog puzzle toy, a snuffle mat is designed to hide

dry food, making it more difficult to eat and encouraging
dogs to use their hunting skills to locate it.
Most dogs love using a snuffle mat as it allows them to
use their powerful sense of smell to hunt out food.
it prevent them from easting food hastily.
these are usually created with polly-fleece strips which are
tied to a plastic base with holes in it, where we can hide
their food.
Our design ,waste t-shirt fabrics is used for both the frills
or stripes and the base.
Base would be made by cutting square pieces of t-shirts
and then layers and patching them together.
our design will have frills or snuffles of different shapes
and color combinations which will help in improving their
visual senses as it will become more complicated puzzle
for them to find their treats.
Outputs
After the well thought activities for building on the inputs of the toy, comes the outputs generated.
Outputs are anything that we make, do or buy as a result of inputs and activities. It is something
that’s built, created or repaired as a direct result of an organisations support.

Our outputs are as follows-

The product created; sustainable stuffed toys for dogs, would be the foremost and the first output
that would be generated. (it would be plastic free that means no BPA and other chemicals)
This product has been completely made using only unstitched t-shirt hosiery fabric including the
filling which in normal cases, is made out of polyester cotton fill and massively poses a threat to the
environment. This has been created for the sole purpose of reducing wastage and smartly using the
fabric that otherwise was just going to burden the landfills.
Our inputs also includes improving the work and skills of the unemployed/unprivileged artisans as
they will be trained to make these toys so the immediate output would also be the generation of
employment and hence their salary since they’ve been deeply affected by the pandemic.
Job offers and generation of employment is one of the key factors for doing your bit in improving the
condition of the unrecognized poor.
Also, since the products are made with waste material and does not require heavy machinery and
skills therefore it will increase the productivity and will reduce the cost of the toys.
Outcomes

Outcomes are the practices performed by either institutions or people that cause behavioural change as well as
change in performance. It is not visible immediately but the effects are shown in a matter of a few months. It can be
referred to as the mid term effects of a launch.

Developing toys out of unstitched waste tshirts would firstly reduce the consumption and need to buy new
stuffed toys for dogs often. This is because hosiery is by nature a very stretchy fabric unlike polyfill which can
easily be destroyed by the unruly handling by the dogs. So the chewing of the toy wouldn’t wear the toy out as
fast as it does to polyfill stuffed toys. Hence, it would also save money when focused on the dog owners.
With this, the two tonne fabric that was otherwise unused, would be upcycled into sustainable product .
It’ll add to the benefits for the dogs which briefly would be:
Protection of dog's health by saving them from swallowing polyester cotton, plastic materials and other
chemicals.
Improving mental health as well as the mood of the dog
Improving the IQ as the toys are interactive.
Improving dental health and sensitivity
Improving the ability of the dogs to comprehend due to healthy skull muscle movement
Impact

The long term effect of this project are as follows-

Demand cycle- The consumption of the pet toys will reduce and the demand cycle will also be small as the toys made
under this project will be durable and will last long due to fabric stuffing and thick outer layer thus it will also reduce the
demand of toxic plastic dog toys.
There will be less consumption of polyester cotton and plastic in the pet toys industry.
Better health and increase in the life span of the dogs as they will be kept away from eating and swallowing plastic,
pollyfill, and other chemicals.
Increase in the awareness among the dog owners about their health.
Increase in the number of trained dogs as training of the dogs will become easy as these upcycled interactive toys will
be pocket friendly in comparison to other plastic toys.
Decrease in the number of surgery cases of dogs.
Increase in the number of skilled artist for the toy industry.
Better environmental condition due to the reduction in the usage of plastic and polyester.
Thankyou