Smoothie bowls and teacups: Kerala’s coconut shells in a sustainable avatar

Working with artisans across the State, brand Thenga recycles coconut shells into eco-friendly items of everyday use

Maria Kuriakose sources raw material for her business — coconut shells — from mills that extract the oil from the mature kernel (copra) and discard the exocarp. At the hands of artisans from across Kerala, these shells are sandpapered, varnished and transformed into designer smoothie bowls, planters, candle holders, cups and even cutlery. Keen on working with natural products sourced from Kerala that would also help the agriculture sector, Maria zeroed in on coconut and also named her brand Thenga in honour of the State’s native crop — thenga means coconut in Malayalam. “I thought of using coconut water and husk before deciding on the shell. A small fraction was being used to make activated charcoal, but most of it was burnt as fuel in oil mills. Every part of the coconut is useful but making value-added items out of coconut shells is limited here, unlike in Southeast Asian countries,” she says.