Chandigarh MC to pick flowers from religious places, make 'dhoop'

Sandeep Rana

Chandigarh, July 11

Soon, flowers and garlands offered at religious places will be turned into ‘dhoop’ (incense). Going the organic way, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation is planning to pick offered flowers and garlands from temples using its vehicles and process these to create incense.

“The process will start soon. We will also try to get in touch with industries to sell them the dhoop produced from these flowers. With this, flowers will get proper disposal,” said MC Commissioner Anindita Mitra, adding that they learnt it during the last study tour of Ujjain. According to information, at some temples in Ujjain, organic waste such as flower, leaves and coconut shells used for puja are fed into a waste converter to make manure out of these.

Besides, the MC here has started collecting and processing coconut shells and is generating refuse derived fuel (RDF). It is generally used to produce electricity. The corporation is further on its way to start converting crushed coconut fibres into ropes.

Since June, when the project began, the civic body has collected more than 29 metric tonne (MT) of coconut shells. Of this, 9 MT has been fed into the coconut crusher at the municipal solid waste processing plant in Sector 25.

The city generates about 550 metric tonne of total waste daily. At present, the MC claims they are processing 150 metric tonne of waste per day. But, since it could not upgrade the waste processing plant, the solid waste management is yet to achieve its goal.

Ujjain connection

• Idea came during a tour of Ujjain, where waste was being processed.
• MC will pick flowers, garlands from religious places and process these to make ‘dhoop’.

To be sold to industries

We will get in touch with industries and sell them ‘dhoop’ produced from these flowers. — Anindita Mitra, MC Commissioner