Coimbatore: Staying tuned to the latest developments and a shift towards eco-friendly products, an entrepreneur in Coimbatore is making pencil from recycled paper under the name ‘Papcil’.

S R Gowtham Prasath, who graduated in electronic and communication engineering and MBA operations management, is making his mark as an entrepreneur by producing eco-friendly recyclable paper pencil. His company’s objective is to save nature and produce eco-friendly products.

He now deals with two variants recycled paper pencil and recycled paper seed pencil. Unlike other pencils, these are made from paper waste and are very affordable and of high quality.

There is another variety where there are seeds at the one end of the pencil. Once the pencil is used to the maximum, it needs to be just buried in sand and the seed will sprout. The seeds are kept in a capsule which dissolves in water after which they sprout. This also instills in a children to be environment-friendly.

The pencils come in 13 different types of flavours such as chili, mustard, morning glory, spinach, coriander, marigold, daisy white, vinca rosea, fenugreek, sunflower, lady’s finger, tomato and basil.

“Our whole theme of business goes with saving nature. We visit NGO’s and help them in campaigns and we occasionally give our products to various charities to be given free of cost,” says Prasath’s friend Sanjeev Kumar.

There are innovative plans to produce recycled paper pen using 80 per cent paper and rest plastic.

The company was started a year ago by Prasath with the help of his friends with Rs 40,000 as initial investment. It supplies products products to Salem, Erode and the Nilgiris.

Prasath told The Covai Post: “I always had attraction towards nature and plastic-free environment. From a very young age, I used to carry bags for shopping instead of plastic ones. I started business with the help of my friends. My parents are very supportive and encouraged my ideas.

“Environmentalist Dr Rajendra Singh is my inspiration and I was associated with him before a few years for a project based on river Noyyal. He taught me a lot of things. I had a great learning from him. He is a remarkable person.”