25,000 kg flowers to be composted into manure: Municipal corporation starts flower waste management

An environment-friendly initiative blending faith with sustainability has yielded results following the 10-day Ganesh festival. The municipal corporation collected flowers and garlands offered by devotees at Ganesh pandals and ensured they were kept out of the regular waste stream.

More than 25,000 kg of flowers and garlands were collected from various pandals and artificial Visarjan ponds during the festival. The floral offerings have been sent to the municipal corporation’s vermicompost plant, where they will be scientifically processed into organic manure.

The municipal corporation had appealed to Ganesh mandals to keep flowers and garlands separate from regular waste collected through door-to-door services. Special vehicles were deployed for the collection.

Separate collection points and containers were also placed at artificial ponds in different zones on the day of Visarjan. Flowers, garlands, durva grass and other puja materials were collected separately from devotees before the Visarjan.

The initiative also helped prevent more than 3,000 coconuts from being wasted. The coconuts will be sorted and sent to local gaushalas, where they will be used as food for cows.