The composting initiative at Kapaleeswarar Temple has received its first harvest — one tonne. The organic composter by Exnora Green Pammal (EGP) resumed operations in mid-April. The composter, which was installed in January, was temporarily shut down so that it could be move inside the temple tank of Kapaleeswarar temple.
Previously, the composter was placed at a corner of Ponnambala Vathiyar street.
The sludge from the biogas plant on the premises of the temple and the flower waste collected from the temple go into the organic composter.
A team from EGP, dedicated for the work, has been collecting flower waste from neighbouring temples as well.
“The feed was not sufficient to generate the desired output. We therefore decided to collect the flowers and other waste from the nearby temples such as Alwarpet Anjaneyar Temple and Velleeswarar Temple to meet the required capacity,” says K.S. Shankar, project in-charge of ITC Mangaldeep’s Green Temple initiative.
He adds that almost one-tonne of compost has been harvested in the first quarter of 2017-2018.
The harvest will be given to the temple authorities.
“They intend to use about 100 kg in the nandavanam (garden) inside the temple. They also plan to put up a stall on the premises to sell the manure, after obtaining the consent of the police commissioner,” says Shankar.
EGP is currently designing a special cover to pack the harvest.
“These are reusable plastic covers with details such as the dosage to apply to the plant and its nutritional value printed on them. We have used 100-micron plastic to hold the moisture content,” Mangalam Balasubramaniam, the managing trustee of Exnora Green Pammal. The covers will also bear the logos of the temple as well as Exnora’s.
Plastic-free temple
Exnora Green Pammal is on a mission to make the temple a plastic-free zone. Since the inception of the project in January, they have been training the cleaning staff to segregate waste. Currently, they are providing separate training to the cleaning staff on how to segregate flower waste and milk packets.
“On pradosham days, devotees bring packets of milk for the deity. These, eventually, get mixed with the flower waste, along with oil packets and agal vilakku . The cleaning staff are being trained to segregate the waste. We have provided a dedicated bin to collect plastic packets,” says Mangalam.
Besides, as the composter does not have a shredder, Shankar says it is important to segregate the scraps.
“Items such as agal vilakku are dumped in the Corporation bins while the milk packets and other plastic items are sold to local vendors,” he says.
