prasad1
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INDIA, December 15, 2020 (SCMP): Devotees hurry to buy flowers from vendors to fill their baskets and join the sea of women heading into the gaily lit and brightly decorated temple. It's the evening of an auspicious festival and temples all over the southern Indian city of Hyderabad are crowded with Hindu worshippers, most bringing offerings of flowers: marigolds, lilies, roses and chrysanthemums. The faithful leave the temples with blessings, but they leave behind piles of blossoms and leaves too.
Hyderabad-based entrepreneurs Maya Vivek, 43, and Minal Dalmia, 41, say the city's lack of waste management for dead flowers paved the way for their niche start-up, Holy Waste. It is one of a number of small commercial enterprises in the country using the dead flowers, a long neglected resource, to make incense - instead of using charcoal and sawdust, or other ingredients - as well as soap, dyes, or colored powders for Hindu religious festivals such as Holi. Floral waste is collected four times a week from 20 Holy Waste collection bins near a number of Hyderabad temples, trucked to the firm's headquarters, and picked over by hand. The start-up produces handmade incense sticks, soap, compost and personalized gifts. Vivek and Dalmia's primary aim is to convert the left-behind offerings into eco-friendly and child-safe products.
Recycling India's Floral Waste: How Flowers Left as Temple Offerings Are Being Made Into Soap, Dyes and Incense Sticks - Hindu Press International - Hindu Press International - Hinduism Today Magazine
