Clean Planet

The Ganesha at the small roadside shrine under a tree in Indiranagar is practically masked by jasmine and marigold flowers. “These are just the decorations for a regular day,” says IT professional V Vinod. “When there’s a festival, there’s at least five times this amount. Imagine the tonnes of flowers all the temples, large and small, across the city must be using and throwing away,” says Vinod.

..So Vinod’s idea is that temples should collect the flowers thrown away every day and turn them into manure. “It’s not expensive, it’s not hard, it’s not even a new idea. It’s just a simple sustainable solution to turn waste to wealth,” he says…

..He believes all temples, however small, can also turn their waste into manure. His idea is to have community collection and composting spots for the flowers from various smaller temples. “Even houses can go and dump their flower waste there,” he says, adding that his own house generates about two kg of flower waste during a festival. “Even parks can compost their leaves in these common bins,” he adds.

Florists , hotels , any place that has flowers to dispose should start to compost them instead of tossing it into the garbage pile.

Highly doable. Solutions like these definitely help make a Cleaner Planet.

p.s – political parties in India should take to composting flowers considering the quantity of floral garlands they use to garland not just their ‘live’ party bosses but also their statues and hoardings.