In India, this year’s Holi celebrations were as colorful as ever, but at the same time greener, thanks to Phool.co. The Kampur-based startup is converting floral waste into the vibrant gulaal powders festival-goers toss about during the festival to celebrate the arrival of spring.
“Generally, gulaal is made using asbestos even glass all those chemical compounds,” Ankit Agarwal, Founder & CEO, Phool.co, tells ET Now. “So, what we have done at Phool is make organic certified gulaal from temple waste. We collect around 3.5 tons of flowers every single day in Varanasi and around 11 tons of flowers in Kanpur and those flowers are collected and these are converted into natural gulaal.”
Founded in 2017, Phool.co counts Bollywood star Alia Bhatt among its investors. “Last year someone gifted her our gulaal and Alia Bhatt being Alia Bhatt wanted some product that was certified, chemical safety and that is when how she came across Phool,” Agarwal says. “We really like her passion and love for animals and that is what resonated with.”
Phool.co also converts the temple waste into incense sticks, an animal leather alternative it calls Fleather, and a packaging material dubbed Florafoam. The discarded flowers would otherwise end up polluting the Ganges river.