Mumbai’s Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has begun converting floral waste collected after the Ganpati festival into compost for civic gardens in the F-South ward, using dedicated handcarts and a composting facility at St Xavier’s ground in Parel.
Nearly 25 large composting bins at the ground are currently filled with nirmalaya, or floral remnants from worship. The waste was collected from 18 artificial immersion sites across the ward, which covers parts of Parel, Dadar, Lalbaug, Hindmata, Chinchpokli and Sewri.
The collection system was expanded this festive season with four dedicated handcarts moving through neighbourhoods, including narrow lanes, chawls, homes and large mandals. According to Sanjay Mohite, assistant engineer in the F-South solid waste department, the handcarts collected floral waste at source to prevent it from being mixed with regular garbage or discarded in the sea.
Vrushali Ingole, assistant municipal commissioner of the ward, said the collected material was transported to the composting facility at St Xavier’s ground and placed in separate bins. A microbial culture has been added to accelerate decomposition, with the process expected to take about a month.
Once the composting is complete, the material will be used as manure in civic gardens in the area. The arrangement gives the municipal administration a separate handling channel for organic festival waste, which is often difficult to process once mixed with household refuse.
The F-South ward includes some of Mumbai’s most densely populated neighbourhoods and sees large-scale Ganpati celebrations across residential communities and public mandals. The concentration of festivities produces substantial quantities of flowers and other organic offerings during the festival period.
Local Shiv Sena (UBT) corporator Sachin Padwal welcomed the initiative, noting that nirmalaya cannot always be mixed with regular waste. The BMC’s process is intended to keep the material separate from other refuse from collection through composting and eventual use in gardens.
The compost is expected to remain in the bins for approximately one month before it can be applied as manure. The next operational step for the ward is therefore the completion of decomposition and the transfer of the processed material to civic gardens.
