The role of single-use plastics in environmental pollution is well known across the world. In addition to making places appear poorly maintained, these pollutants also harm the environment, leaching toxic chemicals into the soil, air, and water. As awareness of this grows, the public is demanding sustainable alternatives, including in India.

One of the major users of plastic is the packaging industry. As most seals, labels, inks, and other packaging components are non-biodegradable, these end up either in landfills or discarded in public spaces. Some Indian companies do provide green alternatives to these materials—however, they mostly import the technology from abroad, driving up prices for customers.

Noting this situation, Ronak Gandhi, Khushboo Gandhi, and Chanakya Medh decided to take matters into their own hands. Their Pune-based startup, Go Do Good, has been offering its own biodegradable packaging materials since 2021. Its mission is simple: to replace single-use plastics and other hazardous ingredients using indigenous green technology.

The Go Do Good way

Go Do Good’s solutions are sustainable alternatives to both plastics and the various chemicals used by traditional packaging companies. Currently, they offer green options that can replace bubble wrap, lamination sheets, EPE foam, printing inks, and LDPE plastics without any environmental damage. The materials they use—ranging from seaweed to agriwaste—have all been developed in-house by their own design team, with zero reliance on foreign suppliers or laboratories. 

The business model in use here is B2B: rather than selling raw materials, Go Do Good supplies businesses with finished products such as boxes, bags, and cartons. The clients are mainly from the food and beverages (F&B) and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industries, including cafes, restaurants, and takeaways. Much as its name suggests, the startup adopts a proactive approach to transparency and accountability, making sure that each client knows exactly how each product has been manufactured. 

Funding for this startup was bootstrapped from the beginning, with no external investors. However, since 2023, Go Do Good has worked closely with incubator Social Alpha to build a healthy market presence.

Impact created so far

The main regions of operation for Go Do Good include Maharashtra (the Pune and Mumbai regions), Karnataka (around Bengaluru), Telangana (Hyderabad), Tamil Nadu (Chennai), and Delhi-NCR. 

This startup now supplies its sustainable packaging products—including mithai boxes, cake boxes, wraps, and so on—to over 100 clients across sectors. Some major clients in this venture include Swiggy, Zomato, Umami Brew, and Piatto Café.

In total, these products have replaced about 50 tons of single-use plastic and 75,000+ layers of bubble wrap. The company’s ecofriendly ink alternative has been utilized in more than 75,000 products. Most boxes save heavily on cellotape and other minor disposables by incorporating flat packing and other creative ways of sealing. These achievements demonstrate the potential that even a single startup has for changing the nature of packaging—especially in the F&B industry, which in turn serves millions of clients. 

In recognition of this, multiple external organizations have presented Go Do Good with awards for sustainability. For example, in 2024, the startup was selected as one of the winners at the innovation challenge “Techtonic—Innovations for Circular Economy”, hosted by Social Alpha and the H&M Foundation. During the same year, it also won a CavinKare-MMA ChinniKrishnan Innovation Award. 

Using policy to boost sustainability

According to Khushboo Gandhi, while developing alternatives to plastic-based packaging, the primary challenge is in creating genuine awareness among potential clients.

While sustainability as a topic has been gaining attention in the media, there are no clear standards for it in India. This has enabled many brands to incorporate labels related to circular economy without explaining them clearly to the public. As it is, most consumers are not informed about the components of packaging, and hence cannot judge whether a packaging supplier is truly committed to sustainability.

The solution to this problem, from a policy perspective, would be to establish transparent standards for sustainable practices in all industries. With this, citizens would be more equipped to consume in ways that reduce environmental degradation in the long term.