Ahmedabad start-up makes incense, compost from puja flowers

Do you ever wonder what kind of use waste could have? In Ahmedabad, flower waste is being recycled into incense sticks and rose water. According to data of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, the city generates around one tonne of waste from by-products of religious ceremonies, including idols, coconut shells and other offerings, including flowers.

Two engineering students based in the city have started Brook and Blooms, a waste management concern, and are working with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to recycle flower waste and make best use of it.

"As an innovative idea, we had converted waste into organic compost in our college for six months. After that, we proposed the idea of flower waste conversion to the AMC. We are doing this on a pilot project basis currently. Going a step ahead, we have even made incense sticks from discarded marigold and rose flowers," said Yash Bhatt, who started Brook and Blooms with Arjun Thakkar.

They also have plans of making rose water from discarded roses. "Now we are in the process of making rose water from roses and pots from coconut husk," said Thakkar.

At present, the duo is collecting flower waste from 44 temples across the city and additionally, they are receiving waste from the AMC too. "The waste which we're collecting directly from temples doesn't require much segregation. However, the waste from Kalash bins (Put on river bridges for puja waste) comes in all forms – it contains plastic and others materials which need to be manually segregated," Thakkar added.

After collecting the waste, this start-up dries the flowers over 18 days. From approximately 1,000kg of waste, they can make some 120-150kg of organic compost. To make incense sticks, they are drying petals.

"We are also making organic compost from flower waste. We have machines to do the same and it takes 18 days to make black gold from the waste. While half the compost is used by the civic body, the remaining, we are distributing among devotees in different temples, to spread awareness about waste management," said Bhatt.

They have decided to price the compost at Rs 40 for 750gm although the price of incense sticks has not been fixed yet.

THE PROCESS

After collecting the waste, this start-up dries the flowers over 18 days. From approximately 1,000kg of waste, they can make some 120-150kg of organic compost. To make incense sticks, they are drying petals.