14 DAY TRIAL // The Dubai-based Environmental Centre for Arab Towns (ECAT) is endorsing HangOn’s plan to deliver paper hangers to dry-cleaners, and thus making the industry eco-friendlier.
Founder of HangOn, Asim Amin Nalkhande, has come up with the idea of distributing the greener hangers for free in order to encourage laundries to use them.
However, the 29-year-old entrepreneur has also thought of ways to still make some money. He will do that by selling advertising space in the middle of the hanger. Moreover, the companies using these cardboard-made hangers would even get a cut from the revenues.
The need to sell advertising space is not because Nalkhande looks to get rich from this business, but it is rather imposed by the fact that a paper hanger costs seven times more than the wire ones.
"The only way you're not going to see the ad is if you dress yourself with your eyes shut," said Nalkhande to The National, pitching the hangers.
Mohamed Al Noori, ECAT’s director, hopes that the respective hangers can be distributed to schools, malls and hotels in Dubai and eventually across the emirates, where semi-governmental organization aims to raise environmental awareness.
"The idea is very simple and it will be a footstep for the rest to follow," he said for the aforementioned source. "Why have an empty hanger going out without any message?" There are already two million hangers distributed each month, so things are looking promising for the young entrepreneur.
Nalkhande opened his own laundry back in 2009, and came up with the idea seeing all the heaps of wire hangers his laundry threw away.
He began looking for recyclable options about a year ago, finding out that there are some factories in China using cardboard to manufacture the hangers.