Door-to-door collection of ‘nirmalya’ for organic compost

Pune: SWaCH workers have been going door-to-door to collect ‘nirmalya’, which are sacred offerings generated during the Ganeshotsav, to continue with the joint initiative of converting it into organic manure for farmers.
Before the pandemic, as part of the joint initiative of 11 years by the Pune Municipal Corporation, solid waste collection hand handling (SWaCH) collective and Cummins India, the SWaCH wastepickers used to engage with citizens at the river during the Ganesh visarjan for nirmalya collection.Now, they go door-to-door for the same.
“In the last three years, 286 metric tonnes of nirmalya has been collected. Citizens are urged to segregate the nirmalya to include only offerings such as garlands, flowers, leaves and give them separately to SWaCH workers,”said Alok Gogate, the operations head at SWaCH.
Sangita Nagtilak, a wastepicker working in the NCL colony, Pashan, said door-to-door collection was better than the earlier method. “Before the pandemic, people weren’t keen on seperating the nirmalya during the visarjan at the river. They used to immerse it in the water. Drawing them towards us and making them segregate was hard,” she said.
Vidya Naiknaware, who collects waste from Taware colony on Satara Road, said, “People are careful now and when an option to not pollute rivers is available at their doorstep, they choose it.”