Rahul Bisunkhe: Nepali teenagers turning plastic waste into furniture

While solving math equations in a Kathmandu classroom, a boy could hardly have imagined that one day he would work in a village far from his own roots, doing work that most people would turn away from as mere garbage. But in a settlement in Dhading, Rahul Bisnukhe , chasing after waste, is sketching a map toward a sustainable future. It marks the start of his business, but he sees it as the result of a consciousness formed far from Kathmandu’s comfortable urban life, in a remote village.

Rahul’s ancestral home is in Jilu, Bhimeshwar Municipality, Dolakha, but he grew up in the lanes of Kathmandu’s Baphal neighbourhood. Raised in a lower-middle-class family, he represents the first generation to receive formal education, something his parents constantly emphasised the importance of.