Entrepreneur on mission to promote ethical silk production

PETALING JAYA: Imagine “silk” sarees made from plastic waste collected from the ocean and recycling centres.

This is what Malaysian company A.J. Adhya Vegan Textiles does. It manufactures eco-friendly sarees from plastic waste products, thus making them environmentally sustainable.

The company’s founder Ashvinaa Jeyabalan said she started the venture when she became a vegan in 2020 after reading a lot about silk manufacturing.

“It was disheartening to learn that the production of a beautiful fabric like silk causes the loss of millions of silkworms and harms our ecosystem,” she told theSun.

“People are also not aware that human and child traffickers are involved in the production of silk. Indians make up almost 20% of the world’s population and are the highest consumers of silk textiles,” she added.

“I wanted to educate people and encourage them to shift to something else that is less harmful to the environment and silkworms, while indirectly fighting against human trafficking.”

Ashvinaa created the vegan silk saree with the help of recycling centres and factories, and the saree weaving industry in Gujarat, India.

“My aim is not on making profits but to encourage other textile manufacturers to join this cruelty-free campaign by going vegan and not using silk in their process, thus saving millions of silkworms,” she said.

According to Ashvinaa, the process of manufacturing eco-friendly sarees starts from the collection of plastic waste from the oceans and recycling factories in Gujarat.

“These plastics are broken down into chips and melted to form threads and fibres, which are then sent to a factory to be processed into yarn and thereafter to weavers to make them into sarees.

“We are not the first to create fabric from plastic as others have been making T-shirts from recycled plastic bottles for quite some time. However, we are possibly the first to make silk-like sarees from plastic.

She added that the aim is to reduce the accumulation of plastic in oceans as it causes the death of photosynthetic plankton, which produces more than 10% of our world’s oxygen.

“Our other vegan silk products are mostly made from plant fibres. They are also known as semi-synthetic fabric despite being made from plants because of the chemicals used to make it last longer.”

She said silk sarees are made by boiling live silkworms. This is to prevent them from exiting their cocoons naturally, which would leave a stain, thus affecting the quality of the final product.

“Therefore, we came up with the vegan silk concept, which is made from plant fibres and discarded mushroom waste from food production units instead of harming silkworms.”

Ashvinaa added that it takes 10,000 silkworms to make one silk saree.

“Imagine how many silkworms are bred and killed just for fashion?

“We believe silk is not a need, it is a want and you can live without it,” she added.

Ashvinaa admits that it will take years to change the mindset of the whole fashion industry but she is willing to fight for the cause even if it takes time.

She said ultimately, the decision to be environmentally conscious lies with the consumer.

Ashvinaa added that she can only provide the information.

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