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Designer beds for Covid patients - 18th January 2021

Indian fashion designer Lakshmi Menon is putting her textile skills to good use and championing sustainability with her inexpensive and hygienic mattresses for the country's Covid care centres.

Intended to accommodate 50 patients each, the new Covid centres are struggling to obtain enough mattresses to meet demand as, due to contamination with the virus, they cannot be reused by multiple patients and are instead incinerated. As Menon puts it, "that’s a lot of mattresses and a lot of burning.”

Menon has devised a unique way of solving this problem: waste plastic from PPE factories is handwoven into braids and then bound together to create a light, soft, washable mattress. India produces more PPE than any other country in the world except China, and the manufacturing results in a mountain of waste plastic offcuts which Menon acquires to produce her mattresses. The work is carried out by women from Kochi, where Menon lives, providing a much-needed income during the pandemic. In addition to providing employment and benefiting the environment, the mattresses are also economical. At 300 rupees (£3) each, they are half the price of standard ones.

Menon came up with her unique method after connecting the sight of children sleeping rough in the streets of Kochi with the stacks of waste fabric of different sizes at a friend’s fashion house. “That’s when I thought I could use braiding to make mattresses for the homeless. Braiding allows you to use every single bit of fabric of different sizes - and everyone knows how to tie a plait."

Overwhelmed by the pandemic, Kerala ordered the setting up of 50-bed Covid centres across the state and as village councils scrambled to find enough mattresses, Menon stepped up with her recycled bedding.

Besides the Covid centres, Menon is partnering with NGOs to furnish homeless shelters and rough sleepers with mattresses on the principle that “everyone deserves a good night’s sleep”.