Palike to replicate Ugadi waste disposal plan for Ramanavami

After Ugadi, the BBMP is now focusing on ensuring that garbage generated during Friday’s Ramanavami festival is disposed of properly. The higher officials in the Palike have directed zonal joint commissioners to ensure that temples use ‘donne’ (leaf cups) to serve prasadam, instead of plastic bowls.

BBMP joint commissioner (solid waste management and health) Sarfaraz Khan said, “About 1,200 metric tonnes of wet waste is generated every day and during festivals, there is a 30% increase. This Ugadi, we had dug up compost pits to dump the festival waste and the initiative was successful. During Ramanavami, we are continuing with our zero-waste movement and have written to temple managements to co-operate with us.”
He said that the staff in most of the temples had agreed to give up the use of plastic cups.

“Pits were dug in most of the wards prior to Ugadi. The same method will be used for dumping festival waste on Friday and it will be turned into manure later,” Khan said.  
To ensure that temple managements follow the directions, Palike has turned to Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) and citizen activists, called the ‘Bangalore eco group’ by the civic agency.

Shashikala P, member of Shantinagar Resident Welfare Association (SRWA), one of the eco-volunteers from East zone, said that the volunteers along with ward health inspectors had been urging the temple authorities in the last few days not to use plastic items.

“We have 20 to 25 volunteers in our zone and most of the temples have been covered,” she said.

A staff member from Sri Rama Sannidhi temple in Shivajinagar said that they will be using banana leaves to distribute prasadam to people this year.

Adamya Chetana Foundation - which had rolled out a first-of-its-kind plate bank scheme three years ago - will rent out its steel cutlery items for Ramanavami programmes scheduled on the premises of the Byatarayanapura government school premises and at Hanumanthanagar.

“We will supply hundreds of tumblers, spoons along with other cutlery for the two programmes. More than 3,000 people are expected to take part and the objective is to minimise plastic waste,” said Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, chairperson of the foundation.