A 100% compostable bottle creates waves

In 2018, Samiksha Ganeriwal sat at home, nursing her second child and noticed a gap so obvious she could not believe no one had filled it. Paper bags, paper cups, paper straws — the world has found a way to replace plastic in almost every everyday item. But walk into any shop and reach for a bottle of mineral water, and plastic remained the only option. Glass was available, but expensive and in Ganeriwal's view, potentially worse due to the lack of proper disposal methods. She started experimenting with paper pulp at home.

That early experimentation produced a two-layer structure: an outer shell of paper pulp and an inner layer of a plant-based coating. Ganeriwal took a paper egg tray, began testing different plant-based solutions to waterproof it, and two years later achieved a result that proved the concept was viable. The prototype offers a projected shelf life of at least six months, sufficient for water and juices, and is fully compostable. Her company, Kagzi Bottles ('kagzi' is Hindi for 'paper'), attracted immediate attention. A single article and a YouTube video with her phone number listed sent enquiries flooding in. Seven years on, the calls have not stopped. Even the big FMCG majors enquired about the product, Ganeriwal says, "All of them have approached us — I am not over-exaggerating. I was really taken aback by the response."

A market, but no machine

Looking at the response that a single article received, the demand is not in question. What Ganeriwal cannot yet find is a manufacturing partner capable of building the machinery to bring the product to commercial scale. Producing the paper bottle requires several distinct steps — forming the pulp shell, applying the plant-based inner layer, sealing the structure — and no single machine yet exists to combine these into a continuous production line. "We are looking for people who can make a large-scale machine to put all our different steps together," she says. "Somebody who can create a machine to put all these different steps together and then create a sort of cycle around it."

Ganeriwal is candid that the bottle remains at prototype stage and is unlikely to reach commercial production before 2027, when she expects paper-based bottles to begin appearing in Europe. "We are looking at doing this not alone, but in partnership, together with industry, together with everybody," she says. The search for a co-founder continues, stalled periodically when each commercial setback makes expansion harder to justify.

Composite materials fill the gap

While the paper bottle waits for its production line, Kagzi has been developing materials that already serve industry partners today. The company produces a bamboo composite — a blend of 30% bamboo, plastic, and other materials — that reduces plastic use in bottles and is fully recyclable. Independent testing against glass bottles for a pharmaceutical client showed carbon emission savings of between 70-80%. The composite is already used in aerospace and automotive interiors, and Kagzi has adapted it for bottles, conducting safety trials for food, alcohol, pharmaceutical, and water applications.

Under India's newly introduced extended producer responsibility (EPR) rules, the reduced plastic content directly cuts the recycling levy companies must pay, making adoption a financial, as well as, an environmental decision.

The company has also produced coated paper for single-use cups without plastic lining, yoghurt cups sealable with paper rather than film, and a water-resistant courier paper capable of holding liquid for 24 to 48 hours. Wheat straws were tested but abandoned as too fragile for commercial use. Each side project has deepened Kagzi's material knowledge and its evidence base for what is and is not ready for market.

Ganeriwal incubated with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi and Indian School of Business (ISB), and received grant funding through IIT Mandi's investment arm. Kagzi has also participated in an international sustainability accelerator in Germany. Despite that, institutional backing and seven years without revenue have taken a toll. "I have not been earning anything. I've only been putting in money. It's been a little exhausting," she says. For now, she watches what other countries and companies are doing, and waits.