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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Amrit Dhillon in Mangalore

‘The Body Shop held our hand’: how the troubled British firm helped a recycling startup in India

Staff sort plastic bottles on a conveyor belt
Plastics are sorted in Mangalore, India, before they are sent to be turned into granules. Photograph: Courtesy of Plastics For Change

Sitting in a sultry corner of southern India, beside the rain trees and beaches of Mangalore, Shifrah Jacobs, the co-founder of Plastics for Change, smiles as she recalls how it all began. One thing she says she won’t ever forget is the Body Shop for its big-heartedness when her company was a wet-behind-the-ears startup.

The Body Shop, whose main UK business collapsed into administration in February, has closed more than 80 stores in its home market and is seeking a rescue deal with landlords, while outlets in the US, Canada and parts of Europe have also shut down.

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