City juice shop helps make soaps, candles from fruit waste

This juice shop in the city makes juices and uses the waste to make a range of other utility products

Famous all across Bengaluru, juice shop Eat Raja is known for its zero-waste policy. It doesn’t provide plastic glasses, straws or even tissues. Instead, everything in the shop is either reusable or a fruit product. Making the initiative truly zero waste, the juice counter also uses its fruit waste to make products such as candles and soaps and artworks such as rangoli.

All products at Eat Raja are served in the shells of fruits

Anand Raaj, the owner, takes immense pride in describing his methods. “We only generate fruit waste and have a 7 x 11 segregation method. We have seven bins, out of which two are for paper and plastic that may have come from chilli powder wrappers or strawberry containers, etc. The rest of the five bins are for specific wet wastes,” says Raaj.

This separated waste is used as a multipurpose tool by Raaj. He feeds the non-citrus waste to cows and uses the citrus ones to make bio enzymes. Even the seeds that are procured after making the juice are dried, filtered and used by his mother to make rangoli back at home. “After the segregation, we use the fruit pulp to make soaps, such as cucumber or strawberry soaps. It is also used to make candles by mixing the juice with wax. These are mainly fruit-infused candles and soaps. The leftover peels are turned into a powdered substance that can be used in beauty masks, facial products,” he adds.