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The Nirmalya Recycling Project 2009

The love and adoration showered upon Sri Ganesha, during the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi express themselves in offerings of various items to the diety during the days of the poojas. These offerings are made of several items : flower garlands, fruits, coconuts, spices, honey and camphor. Each of these has its own special significance and symbolism in the rituals. For example the durva grass offered has the property of enhancing the memory of the person who eats it. Ganesha, the lord of knowledge, is then offered durva for its special properties. Similarly turmeric and kumkum, have antiseptic and cooling properties and therefore these are present in all worship rituals. These offerings go up to make ‘nirmalya’ – a term that means ‘unblemished’ and the tradition has been to immerse these along with the idol during the visarjan.
As the scale of the festival has grown over the years, the appropriate management and disposal of the nirmalya offerings has become an issue of much larger proportion. While most of the offerings themselves are made of natural items, they come wrapped in plastic bags, plastic boxes or glass bottles. If all of these items were immersed into natural water bodies such as lakes or the rivers, the scale of water pollution would be tremendous. To avoid this, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has successfully convinced devotees to deposit their 'nirmalya' bags in kalash shaped bins near the ghats.
	Yet, the fact that non biodegradable materials such as plastic or thermocole accompany the offerrings, makes it necessary to appropriately manage the 'nirmalya' collected
In the past years a project to assist the PMC with this waste disposal, has been slowly growing. Initially it was done under the aegis of the Kalpavriksh Environment Action Group, and the Center for Environment Education and has been implemented by the members of the SWACH cooperative of rag pickers. A social enterprise called eCoexist has been centrally involved the coordination and planning of the project. SWACH is a union of women ragpickers whose work involves segregation of domestic garbage into various recyclable items and to see that they are appropriately recycled. This project involved posting members of SWACH at various ghats along the main rivers of Pune during visarjan days. The women collect the nirmalya bags and make sure all the contents of the bags are correctly seperated into biodegradable and non biodegradable substances. Food items such as fruits and coconuts are taken home by the women or distributed to the poor.
The flowers that are collected in the project are used in two ways. Those that are in good condition can be recycled into dried flower products or natural colour and those that have already degraded can be converted into compost. eCoexist, whose work involves creating ecosensitive livelihoods for the poor and the promotion of ecosensitive products has now been collecting and converting nirmalya into natural colour for three years in collaboration with the Yerawada Central ¨Prison. This year the women of SWACH will also be trained in this process and can earn a supplemental income.	Training to women of SWACH cooperative on flower recycling
The amount of nirmalya collected and recycled will depend on the weather conditions as well as the crowds that cooperate with the activity. As a result of the success of the previous years experiments, the project has received corporate sponsorship from the Young Indians (CII) and Emcure Pharmaceuticals for 2009. This money will go towards equipment needed by the women and public outreach necessary. The Bank of Maharashtra has also participated in spreading the word by carrying a hoarding of the message of ecosensitive Ganesh Chaturthi. Employees of other corporates such as Eaton Technologies and Infosys have been exploring the possibility of sending volunteers to stand at the ghats and educate the public. A youth group called Samarpan in Chinchwad is looking at the possibility of doing a similar activity in their area.

A total of eight ghats will be covered on different days according to the table given below:

Sr No	Name of Ghat	Ward	Dates of operation	Day of festival
1	Yerawada	Sangamwadi	27 Aug, 2 Sept	5th and 9th day
2	Sangam	Sangamwadi	27 Aug, 2 Sept	5th and 9th day
3	Bund Garden	Dhole Patil	27 Aug, 2 Sept	5th and 9th day
4	S M Joshi bridge	Kasba Vishram	29 Aug, 3 Sept	7th and 10th day
5	Aundh gaon	Aundh	29 Aug, 3 Sept	7th and 10th day
6	Mahadev Mandir	Bopodi Aundh	29 Aug, 3 Sept	7th and 10th day
7	Vriddheshwar	Ghole Road	29 Aug, 3 Sept	7th and 10th day
8	Katraj Ramp	Dhankawadi	29 Aug, 3 Sept	7th and 10th day

SWACH and eCoexist request the citizens of Pune to assist us in ensuring that Ganeshs blessings leave us with a clean environment and help these women with their livelihoods.

What you can do to help:
1. Do a visarjan at your own home in a bucket of clean water.
2. If you do go to the ghats, make sure you immerse your idol in the immersion tank and not the river.
3. Take a few minutes to open your nirmalya bag and segregate the contents along with the help of the SWACH women.
4. Spread the word amongst friends and families via email or by word of mouth.
5. Come and volunteer at the ghats on the days mentioned to educate the public about this effort.

For further information you can contact:
Shabana Diler, SWACH, 9765999492
Manisha Gutman, eCoexist, 9850084383

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The Nirmalya Recycling Project 2009