NID grad recycles ceramic waste into durable ceramic ware; industrial tie-ups in the offing

When Shashank Nimkar was studying ceramic and glass design at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad (2016-19), he visited a cluster of ceramic industries in the informal sector. He saw firsthand the waste generated by ceramics products, which are not biodegradable for centuries and end up in landfills.

This was a moment of epiphany. It struck him that if he could recycle this ceramic waste into useable ceramic material, he could contribute to solving the country's solid waste management problem. This recycling would also reduce the mining of new clays to make ceramics. 

The amount of ceramic waste powder generated worldwide is estimated to be 22 billion tonnes annually. The major source is the use of ceramic tiles by the construction industry.

In India, around 15-30 percent of the total ceramic production is wasted. One use of ceramic waste is in the making of concrete. 

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Patented process 

To recycle ceramics, Shashank founded Earth Tatva in 2021 in Ahmedabad during the lockdown. “It was my project in the master's programme. I started working on recycling ceramics in 2018. The project was completed in 2019. Due to the lockdown, I could not get any work done in 2020. Meanwhile, I obtained a Rs 20 lakh grant from the Government of Gujarat. So, Earth Tatva came into being in 2021,” he tells 30Stades. 

The venture uses a patented process to convert ceramic waste into mouldable clay. Around 60 percent of waste is mixed along with clay to make recycled ceramic.

The enterprise procures post-industrial fired ceramic waste and uses it with pure clay that acts as a natural binder. The recycled material can be used for many production cycles without downgrading its quality. 

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Earth Tatva is featured in a book on the ‘Honey Bee Network Creativity & Inclusive Innovation Awards - HBN CRIIA-India, 2024’. Honey Bee Network was set up by Prof Anil Gupta, a former faculty of IIM, Ahmedabad committed to promoting grassroots innovations. 

“Innovators from or for grassroots applications can submit their entries to hbncriia@gian.org,” says Prof Gupta. The 2025 awards are being given in partnership with Mahindra and Mahindra, he adds.  

Recycling ceramics

Shashank says they procure the crushed ceramic in powder form. “The cost ranges from Rs 2 to Rs 5 per kg. There is no need to segregate the waste. Our patented clay preparation and water is mixed with waste in a machine called a ball mill,” he explains.

“Another machine, a filter press, is used to dry the liquid clays. A pug mill is used to mix and compress the clay and remove the air bubbles. We pack and sell the final product to artists. Several pottery studios are our clients. We are exploring a tie-up with the sanitaryware industry at the moment. Once we get the product customized for them, we will work out the licensing agreement.” 

However, some of the recycled ceramic is used to make mugs, bowls and partitions used in interior decor by Earth Tatva itself. They will commercially launch plates and tiles soon. 

The cost of tableware ranges from Rs 325 to Rs 375, depending on the colour. The tableware is 100 percent food-safe, as the team does not use any heavy metals for their glazes. 

Partitions measuring 4ft X 2.5ft cost Rs 30,000. 

Dhruva Patel, a lifestyle accessory designer from National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Chennai, is a regular customer of Shashank’s. Her ‘Studio Wildflower’ located on the outskirts of Ahmedabad was set up in 2017.  Her ceramic creations are inspired by nature. She buys slip (liquid clay) from Earth Tatva. 

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“Everything is handmade in our studio and slip-casted (where liquid clay is poured into moulds and then fired in a kiln to make ceramic bowls and plates). We buy slip made of recycled ceramics from Shashank every two weeks. Skilled artisans work well with this material. As compared to new clay, recycled material dries much faster. So, the orders can be processed faster. The product is more durable. It doesn’t chip that easily,” says Dhruva. 

Special features  

Recycled ceramic needs less temperature to mature. It can be moulded into any shape and is stronger than regular ceramic. The material has also been tested by the Ceramic Research Institute. 

Recycled ceramic is 35 percent stronger than regular ceramic, as per the reports. Recycling does not need specialized machinery. Rejects/waste can be recycled again and again, explains Shashank. 

Eco-friendly aspects of the venture are that recycled paper and cardboard are used for packaging. There is no plastic used. Paper tape is used in the packaging process instead of cello tape. Also, making different sizes and shapes of packaging is minimized, which reduces wastage of packaging material. 

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“As we don’t have a crushing machine at present, we store the waste during our own production process. Once we obtain one, we will recycle our waste too,” he adds. 

The venture has a team of four employees, two women who work full time and earn Rs 10,000 per month. It has a factory in Ahmedabad in Naroda area. 

“I was interested in working on paper as an art form but since it was not durable, I opted for ceramic in my master’s programme. I am still keen to work with paper and cardboard,” says Shashank.    

Childhood love for craft

Shashank belongs to Maharashtra but did his schooling in Surat. His father is an accountant while his mother is a homemaker. They live in Surat. His wife Prachi is a ceramic artist and works as a technical assistant at NID. She studied at the JJ School of Fine Arts, Mumbai. 

“I was interested in craft since childhood and had gained experience working with different materials. I also picked up visualisation skills. In my under-graduation, I studied animation at Symbiosis, Pune (2010-14). Even then, I was more interested in making models exploring a variety of materials rather than the digital part. Here again, I observed that carefully prepared models were discarded,” he says. 

Ceramic compositions are of four types – terracotta, stoneware, porcelain and Bone China. Earth Tatva works on stoneware. 

While normal clay comes from the riverbed and is used to make, terracotta, special clays are mined to make ceramic. Sanitaryware and tableware are made from stoneware. 

What were his takeaways from NID? “I felt confident about saying: ‘I don’t know something and tell me about it.’ I was able to collaborate with peers from different departments. I also got to know where to get different materials in Ahmedabad,” says 32-year-old Shashank.   

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“Participating in the HBN CRIIA-India competition was a good experience. While we did not win an award, meeting a cohort of innovators from different parts of the country was very useful.”

Future plans 

There are plans to recycle POP (Plaster of Paris) used to make moulds. However, we want to make ceramic recycling commercially viable before moving to other materials. There is demand for liquid clay as it is not easily available in the market and enables the artist to scale up their production. Our aim is that a recycled product should be used multiple times,” he says.  

“We want to add value by making our recycled ceramic material available to industry so that companies can make finished products from their waste. We want to license our patent to companies. There are huge sanitaryware makers in Thangadh in Gujarat and tile makers in Morbi. We don’t have that kind of facilities. So, our aim is not to increase our production but to facilitate the use of our innovation by other players,” Shashank signs off.  

(Aruna Raghuram is a freelance journalist based in Bengaluru. She writes about people, environmental matters, parenting, DEI issues, and social/development enterprises.)

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