03 October,2026 08:03 AM IST | Mumbai | Ritika Gondhalekar
Members of the Beach Please team; A study table made from recycled PoP; The team processes PoP at the recycling facility in Valsad. Pics/By Special Arrangement
Every year, after the drums fall silent and devotees bid farewell to Ganpati Bappa, thousands of broken idols and other material are left behind in Mumbai's water bodies. The question is what happens to them after visarjan. This year, the BMC retrieved 2754.9 metric tonnes of idols and other post-immersion material between September 16 and 27. The civic body has been working on ways to reuse or scientifically process the Plaster of Paris (PoP) collected after immersions.
For Mumbai environmentalist and Beach Please founder Malhar Kaalambe and Gujarat-based recycling expert Dr Binish Desai, the answer is to turn at least some of that waste into something useful.
Their initiative, âVisarjan Se Vidya Tak', collects broken and immersed PoP idols and processes the material into study tables, benches and other products.
Desai said the project is also intended to create employment and educational infrastructure. "The project is not merely about recycling PoP. It aims to create educational infrastructure for needy communities, generate employment for rural and tribal women trained to manufacture recycled products, and provide companies with meaningful CSR opportunities," he said. He said consistency of the recycled material was initially the biggest challenge while developing MurtiCycle. The technology has been patented and published in India. The initiative hopes to create a second life for at least some of the material left behind after visarjan - turning broken idols into products that can be used long after the festival ends.
Funding was a hurdle until Henkel and the Rotary Club's Joy of Giving joined in. "Both funded the initiative last year and will fund it this year as well through their CSR programme," said Kaalambe. The team collected around 3500 kg of PoP last year, of which around 3100 kg was recycled. The material was used to make 730 study tables, three benches, 500 keychains and over 200 penholders, among other products, according to the figures supplied by the team. For 2026, the team says it already has commitments for 5000 tables - 2000 from one client and another 3000 from a second.
Collection
Broken and immersed idols are collected
Sorting
PoP is separated from metal, cloth, paint, and other materials
Processing
The PoP is processed using MurtiCycle technology
Manufacturing
The recycled material is moulded into products
Distribution
Products such as study tables and benches are supplied for use by children and communities
Desai said the first step is separating PoP from paint, metal, clothes and other contaminants. "Metals are removed completely because they may not be safe, particularly when the final products are meant for children," he said. Paint is also removed before the material enters the recycling process. For a typical 3-4 kg medium-sized idol, Desai said around 96 per cent of the material can be recovered.
Recover material from immersed idols instead of allowing it to become waste, and turn it into useful products for children and communities. "A few years ago, when the High Court passed an order on recycling PoP and about establishing artificial ponds, we expected it to happen at the civic authorities' level. But, instead, we observed that the post-visarjan water from these artificial ponds was ultimately released into the ocean itself. That's when I made a decision to ensure that the immersed idols must come to use for those in need and also, in a way, ensure that the ocean does not get harmed even more," said Kaalambe.
The initiative began as a pilot in 2024, when around 100 idols were collected and sent to Desai to test whether people would accept products made from idol waste. "The response was superb," said Kaalambe. Scaling up, however, proved difficult. "In 2024, when we had reached out to the BMC, they weren't quite willing. After much convincing, the NMMC came on board. But they did not have funds to pull off such a huge responsibility. They gave us around 10,000 idols that they had stored. We later processed them and sent them to Desai's facility in Valsad. Apart from this, scaling up remains difficult. Processing idols is labour-intensive and requires considerable manpower as the immersed idols need to be carefully processed to pack them and send properly to Valsad," said Kaalambe.
Kaalambe's team collects immersed and broken idols from water bodies across Mumbai and sends the material to Desai's facility in Valsad. Desai uses his proprietary recycling technology, âMurtiCycle', to process the PoP after it is separated from paint, metal, cloth and other contaminants.
