He wants to help us live in a cleaner environment. The young managing director of Eco-logic, Sanjeev Beechoo, firmly believes in a greener Mauritius and proposes green solutions. His factory producing paper bags has been operational for less than a year and he wants to encourage people to use non-polluting bags.

After winning the Shell Livewire competition in 2004 with his paper bag production project, Sanjeev Beechoo launched his business. “It was pretty hard at the beginning because I was alone doing everything in the company; I have been able to go on with this thanks to the support of my family,” he acknowledges. Almost one year later, he is quite satisfied with the way the company has developed.

Five persons are now working full-time for Eco-Logic and he believes his business could grow even more in the future. Amul Keettoo is in charge of production; Amid Bhundhoo spends the day looking for original designs to satisfy customers while Amit is always on the road trying to attract new customers. The company recently employed a full-time manual worker to produce the bags.

No doubt the main advantage of such bags is that they are environment-friendly. The idea came to Sanjeev when the government was thinking of introducing a new law to ban the use of plastic bags a few years ago.

After intending to allow only the production of biodegradable plastic bags, the previous government decided it would be better to allow the production of degradable bags only, which means that they would contain a percentage of degradable material and a portion of polluting material. “I believe this is even worse than the bags we have at the moment. Such bags would be transformed into dust and would go into the atmosphere without people even realising,” explains Sanjeev. In any case, it seems all such projects have been frozen for the moment.

But this has not prevented his small company from moving ahead. “We have to admit that the market is quite restricted for the moment because paper bags have one main disadvantage: they are more expensive than plastic bags.”

As a result, the company doesn’t target supermarkets or small shops that wouldn’t pay for such bags but mostly hotels, high-standard shops or big companies. Not only do they have more financial means but they also want to take care of their image. And as Sanjeev puts it, the bags are a “strong image-builder”.

They can be used not only as traditional bags but also for presents or end-of-year parties… “We can personalise the bags with a specific logo and even the bag itself can be made to a special design . We adapt to our customers’ demand,” Amul explains.

As the market targeted is a high standard one, the concept of the duty-free paradise would certainly be beneficial to the company. But they are patient and satisfied with developments so far and intend to take all necessary time to continue on the same lines.

Eco-logic will take part in the “Mauritius for Africa” trade fair next month where it will tackle the regional market. They are also thinking of importing raw materials to reduce their production costs but, once again, they will wait for the perfect time.

Until then, the staff of Eco-Logic continue to believe in a greener tomorrow… Not only in terms of their bags but also in a more global perspective. “With the rise in the price of petrol, people will be forced to use renewable energies in the future… More generally, the public will have to realise that we will not get very far if we don’t take care of our environment,” concludes wise Sanjeev.