Ever wonder what happens to all those empty pill packets and shredded plastic bits from the pharmaceutical industry? Turns out, if you're Jannat Gill, Sharon Sethi, and Mallika Reddy, you turn it into a rather stylish lounge chair.
These three friends, operating under the design studios Daera and Cancelled Plans, have taken a whopping 500 kg of pharmaceutical waste and transformed it into intricate, unique fabric for furniture. Because apparently, that's where we are now: making high-end decor out of what would otherwise be landfill fodder.
From Wedding Chat to Waste-Saving Wonders
Jannat and Sharon started Daera in 2018, fueled by a shared love for sustainable furniture and a conversation at Jannat’s wedding in 2015. They almost went into jewelry, but after Jannat’s home decor projects started turning heads, they pivoted. Daera, meaning 'establishments' in Punjabi, now crafts everything from Maharaja-inspired bedrooms to English-style living rooms. Think classic aesthetics, but with a quiet nod to the planet.
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Start Your News DetoxEnter Mallika Reddy, founder of Cancelled Plans, a studio dedicated to using "rejects" and "unused" materials. She and the Daera duo met at another wedding in Thailand in 2019 (weddings, it seems, are excellent networking events for eco-conscious designers). A collaboration was born: Jannat and Sharon would handle the colors and silhouettes, while Mallika would dive into textures and patterns.
The Unlikely Glamour of Pharmaceutical Trash
Mallika’s background in healthcare made her acutely aware of the sheer volume of waste generated by the industry. So, for the 'Daera X Cancelled Plans' collection, that waste became the star. We're talking non-hazardous discards from industrial zones near Delhi and Hyderabad: tablet packaging, plastic wraps, those tiny shredded bits from tablet cutting, and empty containers. They even throw in textile waste and billboard printing scraps for good measure. So far, 500 kg of this stuff has been diverted from eternal rest in a landfill.
Once collected, this industrial detritus gets a serious glow-up. The trio works with artisans in Hyderabad — embroiderers, handloom weavers, and textile workers in Pochampalli, Tamil Nadu — to spin, weave, and stitch it into fabric. Mallika oversees this rather impressive alchemy, while Jannat and Sharon focus on designing pieces that are minimalist, Bauhaus-inspired, and tell a story.
From lounge chairs and warp chairs to shuttle benches, chandeliers, and even oracle mirrors, their collection is now sold across India. It’s a compelling argument that one person’s trash is another’s surprisingly chic, conversation-starting furniture. And if that's not a brighter future for waste, what is?
