Mumbai Ganpati visarjan waste turned into study tables, benches through PoP recycling

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 Mumbairsquos water bodies The question is what happens to them after visarjan This year the BMC retrieved 27549 metric tonnes of idols and other postimmersion 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 immersionsFor Mumbai environmentalist and Beach Please founder Malhar Kaalambe and Gujaratbased recycling expert Dr Binish Desai the answer is to turn at least some of that waste into something usefulTheir initiative lsquoVisarjan Se Vidya Takrsquo collects broken and immersed PoP idols and processes the material into study tables benches and other productsFrom left Dr Binish Desai and Malhar KaalambeMore than recyclingDesai said the project is also intended to create employment and educational infrastructure ldquoThe 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 opportunitiesrdquo 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 mdash turning broken idols into products that can be used long after the festival endsCSR helps scale the projectFunding was a hurdle until Henkel and the Rotary Clubrsquos Joy of Giving joined in ldquoBoth funded the initiative last year and will fund it this year as well through their CSR programmerdquo 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 mdash 2000 from one client and another 3000 from a secondThe recycling chainCollectionBroken and immersed idols are collectedSortingPoP is separated from metal cloth paint and other materialsProcessingThe PoP is processed using MurtiCycle technologyManufacturingThe recycled material is moulded into productsDistributionProducts such as study tables and benches are supplied for use by children and communitiesHow the PoP is recycledDesai said the first step is separating PoP from paint metal clothes and other contaminants ldquoMetals are removed completely because they may not be safe particularly when the final products are meant for childrenrdquo he said Paint is also removed before the material enters the recycling process For a typical 34 kg mediumsized idol Desai said around 96 per cent of the material can be recoveredThe ideaRecover material from immersed idols instead of allowing it to become waste and turn it into useful products for children and communities ldquoA 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 authoritiesrsquo level But instead we observed that the postvisarjan water from these artificial ponds was ultimately released into the ocean itself Thatrsquos 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 morerdquo said KaalambeThe 100idol testThe 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 ldquoThe response was superbrdquo said Kaalambe Scaling up however proved difficult ldquoIn 2024 when we had reached out to the BMC they werenrsquot 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 10000 idols that they had stored We later processed them and sent them to Desairsquos facility in Valsad Apart from this scaling up remains difficult Processing idols is labourintensive and requires considerable manpower as the immersed idols need to be carefully processed to pack them and send properly to Valsadrdquo said KaalambeFrom idol waste to a school deskKaalambersquos team collects immersed and broken idols from water bodies across Mumbai and sends the material to Desairsquos facility in Valsad Desai uses his proprietary recycling technology lsquoMurtiCyclersquo to process the PoP after it is separated from paint metal cloth and other contaminants