Alongside the work we did on the products and materials for the festival, eCoexist also started to look at the issue of waste management for the waste the festival generated. Working along with Swach, eCoexist initiated a campaign to collect and segregate 'nirmalya' the religious waste the people brought to the banks of the river. Here we worked alongside the rag picker women, to convince people to avoid putting the waste into the river and hand it over for segregation and recycling. From among the waste collected several tonnes of flowers were then taken by us to the Yerawada Central Prison where we attempted to make natural colours from these flowers, creating a fantastic experience for the prisoners in turn.

After five years of leading this initiative, eCoexist found a corporate sponsor for the rag pickers and handed over the project to them.

Ganesh Chaturthi (IAST: Gaṇēśa Chaturthī),  is the Hindu festival that reveres god Ganesha. A ten-day festival, it starts on the fourth day of Hindu luni-solar calendar month Bhadrapada, which typically falls in the Gregorian months of August or September. The festival is marked with the installation of Ganesha clay idols privately in homes, or publicly on elaborate pandals (temporary stages).  The festival ends on the tenth day after start, wherein the idol is carried in a public procession with music and group chanting, then immersed in nearby water body such as a river or ocean, thereafter the clay idol dissolves. ( Source: Wikipedia)

Read about the natural origins of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in an interview with Vedic scholar Sri Vivek Godbole of Satara.