This Goa project is turning your old clothes into new grocery bags

It started with a bag and a mild public outburst in Goa. Sanjiv Khandelwal, the founder of non-profit Sensible Earth, was helping a friend carry vegetables from a vendor to their car. As a sustainability advocate, he gently offered to ditch the plastic and help transfer the produce himself. The response? “None of your business,” his friend snapped. That moment stuck. “We realised we couldn’t just keep preaching,” says Khandelwal. “We needed a real, tangible solution.”

And so began Maka Naka Plastic—Konkani for “I don’t want plastic”—a community-driven initiative that upcycles old clothes into reusable cloth bags. The original goal? Upcycle 10,000 cloth bags and call it a day. But the response was so overwhelming, they never stopped. Three years in, Maka Naka Plastic has saved over 50,000 garments from landfills and created thousands of bags that are now spotted everywhere from college campuses to kombucha deliveries.

In today’s world, where Instagram hauls and GRWM videos dominate our feeds, it’s easy to believe that we need a new outfit every other week. But the real cost of looking cute isn’t just on your credit card—it’s on the planet. Fashion, especially the fast-moving, trend-chasing kind, has become one of the biggest polluters. Textiles are now the third-largest contributor to landfills, and most modern fabrics are blended with synthetic materials like polyester. In fact, around 65 per cent of today’s clothing contains plastic. So, every time we toss out last month’s “look”, we’re adding to a problem that takes centuries to break down. According to UNEP, every day, the world dumps about 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic in our oceans, rivers, and lakes.

Layer that with convenience culture—everything delivered, everything disposable—and you’ve got a consumption loop that’s hard to snap out of. But snapping out of it is exactly what Maka Naka Plastic aims to help us do, by making reusable bags not just accessible but also downright cool.

The beauty of Maka Naka Plastic lies in its simplicity. The concept isn’t new. Indian households have always had a habit of upcycling. Old saris become cushion covers, dad’s shirts get turned into kitchen towels, and every mother seems to have that one drawer filled with cloth bags made from “good cloth”. Khandelwal’s late mother found the project charmingly redundant. “She laughed and said, ‘We’ve been doing this forever. What’s new about it?’” he recalls fondly. The twist, of course, is that this time it’s being done on a large scale. Not just by grandmas in their kitchens but by an organised team creating a ripple effect across the state.

At the heart of this initiative are the women who make the bags. Currently, Maka Naka Plastic has employed 144 women across Goa, 18 of whom form the core team that has been with the project since day one. Many of them work from home—from 3 pm to 6 pm—stitching bags while balancing household responsibilities. This work-from-home, micro-shift model was deliberately designed to suit their daily lives. “These women start their day at 5 am, looking after families, farming, selling produce. We wanted to respect their time and provide steady weekly income,” explains Khandelwal.

The project also collaborates with government bodies and self-help groups to expand its reach. Training sessions, workshops, and upskilling are ongoing, making sure this isn’t a temporary gig but a platform for long-term community development.

Across Goa, Maka Naka Plastic collects donated clothes, mostly large pieces like curtains, bedsheets, and saris, and transforms them into stylish, functional bags. These aren’t your sad, faded giveaway totes. Some are made from luxury shirts. Others are stitched into denim sling bags. Many are co-branded with local businesses, tourism initiatives, and eco-conscious brands. Others are distributed free at colleges, vegetable markets, and community events.

“It’s a bit of a Robin Hood model,” says Khandelwal. “Those who can pay, pay. And then about 4 per cent of our production is, as our team likes to call them, designer bags, denim bags, tote bags, sling bags. Those we try to sell at a bit higher price so we can use that to fund the project.”

Maka Naka Plastic is just one of over 22 projects run under the umbrella of Sensible Earth. Another standout initiative is The Living Lab, which focuses on experimenting with natural dyeing, screen printing, and extending the life of clothing before upcycling. There are other projects too, like reforestation drives, farm-to-forest programmes, and education campaigns, each aimed at asking one key question: “How can we leave behind more than we consume?” That question fuels everything Khandelwal and his team do.

Khandelwal believes real change doesn’t need grand gestures. “It starts with a one-degree shift,” he says. “If you veer off by just one degree from your usual route, over time you’ll end up in a completely different place.” In other words, just start with a cloth bag. Keep one in your car, one in your bag, one by the door. Make it as second-nature as grabbing your phone. “The planet is like a bank account. If we keep withdrawing and never deposit, we’ll go bankrupt,” he adds.

What does Khandelwal ultimately want? “To be out of a job,” he laughs. “My dream is that one day everyone is already carrying their cloth bags and we can all go chill on the beach.” Until then, he and his team will keep cutting, stitching, and sparking small shifts that lead to bigger change. So go on, ditch the plastic. Maka naka excuses.