Born and raised in Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh, Radhesh Agrahari’s initiative, Golden Feathers, was born out of a classroom challenge. In 2011, whereas Radhesh was a pupil on the Indian Institute of Crafts and Design in Jaipur, he needed to create one thing new out of waste for a challenge. “I was away for three days in Agra, and when I returned, my classmates had chosen items like plastic sanitary waste and thermocol, and so I had to look for a different material.”
Butchery waste, primarily feathers, is turned into fibre that may be made into stoles, shawls, mufflers and extra
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And that’s how he zeroed in on utilizing meals waste. “I had gone to a butchery to buy chicken, and I observed that when one orders 1.2 kilos of chicken, we get about 650 gms that can be used, and around 350 gms, that includes the feet, neck and feathers, go to waste,” says the36-year-old who’s amongst India’s three finalists at R|Elan Circular Design Challenge (CDC).
Radhesh, alongside together with his companions from IICD — Muskan Sainik and Abhishek Verma — spent the subsequent eight years researching. By 2019, they have been capable of convert butchery waste, primarily feathers, into fibre that may be made into stoles, shawls, mufflers and extra. The trio has additionally managed to make fish meals, manure, and handmade paper from the waste.
Organised by Reliance Industries’ R|Elan (an initiative geared toward selling sustainable and round style practices), in partnership with the United Nations in India and Lakmē Fashion Week, CDC’s finals can be held at Lakmē Fashion Week x FDCI this October. Golden Feathers will compete with India finalists Crcle, Farak, and Maximilian Raynor (UK), Martina Boero (Cavia, EU), and Jesica Pullo (BIOTICO, Asia Pacific).
An embroidered stole
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Currently, the group at Golden Feathers crafts shawls, unisex stoles, handmade paper, quilts, amongst different merchandise. For the CDC competitors, the duo introduced their Earth and Stitch assortment comprising stoles and mufflers constructed from feather wool. “These pieces have been hand embroidered and handwoven by women belonging to the Bheel tribe in UP and Madhya Pradesh. The collection uses colours like off white, dull pink, and baby blue,” explains Radhesh, who will add crop tops, skirts, and so on. to the gathering for the finale.
“We started out with 10 workers in 2019, and now, we have 200. Some of them were artisans, the others learned the craft (weaving and creating thread) on the job,” Radhesh says. As for the method, Mayank explains how the butchery waste first will get sanitised utilizing a 27-step course of, and is thensegregated. Women artisans use this to create thread utilizing moist spinning, and hand carting; which is then handwoven to create the material. The waste, Muskaan says, begins to decay after six hours, which is a small window by which one can work on it. “But, if we use chemicals to sanitise it, the quality of the feathers gets affected,” Radhesh provides.
Artisans with their creations
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This innovation is what led them to successful the celebrated German Design Award for Excellent Product Design — Lifestyle & Fashion, in 2021, making them the primary Indian firm to win Gold within the class. In December 2024, Golden Feathers was one among three winners for the Artha Impact Award and one among 18 winners of Kula Innovate 2024 innovation problem.
“In New Delhi and the NCR region, on an average, close to 2.24 crore kilos of chicken are consumed in a day, which generates at least 74 lakh kilos of waste. This means that in a year close to 3 crore kilos of butchery waste from chicken is generated,” Radhesh says, “Butchery waste from different animals like buffaloes and goats normally will get used up: pores and skin for leather-based, organs for speciality meals and pet meals, and the bones for broth, he provides, quoting information shared by Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture Foundation, a Delhi-based livestock analysis group.
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A snapshot of the moist spinning course of
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With Golden Feathers, Radhesh and his group have additionally managed to revive two weaving methods: moist hand spinning and moist hand carding. The group has additionally empowered over 200 girls belonging to the Bheel tribe, by using them of their manufacturing items in Jaipur, Pune, and Jhalawar in Rajasthan.
The subsequent step for Radhesh is to determine a village that makes wood-free paper aka handmade paper. The custom of creating handmade paper, he says, has been practised in India for hundreds of years. “But it changed when the British started ruling us. A lot of our arts and crafts were lost,” he says, including how a number of forms of weaving and handicrafts have turn into extinct or out of date in recent times like vark print, patua portray, and mirror work.
A unisex muffler at Golden Feathers
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Radhesh additionally hopes that the Government will help their work to determine a sustainable recycling mannequin, which is able to assist them divert the waste at a big scale. “Our vision is impact-driven,” he says, “We would like to fight pollution in all forms, be it land, air or water.”
