Mumbai: At St Xavier’s ground in Parel, nearly 25 large composting bins now stand packed with floral waste collected after the Ganpati festival—turning what is largely treated as post-immersion waste into compost for the area’s civic gardens.Nirmalaya (floral remnants of worship) was collected from 18 artificial immersion sites in the F-South ward, which includes the Parel-Dadar belt, as well as through dedicated handcarts that moved through neighbourhoods during the festival. The area, at the heart of the city’s Marathi belt, sees Ganpati celebrations spill into its smallest chawls, homes and narrow lanes, generating large quantities of flowers and other organic offerings. Sanjay Mohite, assistant engineer of F-South’s solid waste department, said floral waste was collected at source in handcarts, which were introduced for the first time this festive season, to prevent it from getting mixed with other waste or being thrown into the sea. Vrushali Ingole, assistant municipal commissioner of the ward, said BMC deployed four dedicated handcarts to collect the floral offerings from the smallest neighbourhoods to giant mandals in Lalbaug, Hindmata, Chinchpokli and Sewri. “The waste was then taken to the composting facility at St Xavier’s ground, where it was placed in separate composting bins. A microbial culture has been added to speed up the composting process.” The material is expected to take about a month to fully decompose. Officials said it will eventually be used as manure in civic gardens in the area. Local Shiv Sena (UBT) corporator Sachin Padwal praised the initiative since nirmalaya often cannot be mixed with regular waste.
