Mumbai’s Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has begun implementing a POP Ganesh idol recycling system after immersion, issuing a standard operating procedure for collection, safe storage, scientific processing and reuse of the material in line with Bombay High Court directions.
Under the procedure, idols immersed in artificial ponds, temporary immersion tanks and water bodies must be removed within 24 hours. The civic administration has instructed all divisional assistant commissioners to organise the operation and ensure that the collected idols are handled and transported through designated channels.
The processed material may be reused to make new idols, plaster boards, ceramics, medical plaster and bricks, or as filler material in the cement industry. The proposed process is intended to cover the chain from collection after immersion to scientific recycling and reuse, while reducing the amount of plaster of Paris entering or remaining in water bodies.
The procedure also covers large idols immersed in natural water sources. The Bombay High Court issued an important decision in August concerning POP Ganesh idols taller than six feet. As in the previous year, immersion of such idols in natural water bodies has been permitted. The civic administration will nevertheless collect these idols and arrange for their disposal through an environmentally safer process.
For the operation, each civic division must appoint a separate coordinating officer and provide the required workforce, personal protective equipment, cranes and properly covered vehicles. The recovered idols must be transported securely only to the designated idol unloading and storage facility in Mulund.
The BMC’s solid waste management department has also made record-keeping mandatory. Divisions must preserve operation-wise records, weighbridge receipts, photographs and video documentation of the collection and transportation process. Assistant commissioners will monitor daily operations under the supervision of the respective zonal deputy municipal commissioners.
The civic procedure also includes a tender process for handling approximately 2,850 tonnes of material. The stated objective is to create an organised system for protecting water bodies and ensuring that immersed POP idols move through controlled collection, processing and reuse rather than being left in natural or temporary water environments. Further implementation will be monitored through the divisional reporting and supervisory structure specified by the BMC.
