This Bangalore Temple Generates Zero Waste and Makes Its Own Compost!

Whether you’re a pious devotee, or just an unfortunate someone being dragged to the temple by their family, there’s one part of the experience everyone looks forward to - the prasad. But the reality is that at the end of the day, the temple premises are littered with little paper cups. In an attempt to combat this issue, a temple in Bangalore - Sri Shakti Kalyana Mahaganapati Temple - set up the perfect system which has turned the temple into a zero waste zone as of June, 2016.

With over 500 visitors everyday, trash started to accumulate incessantly in front of the temple and the board of trustees decided take the initiative to place an effective waste management system. The temple offers prasad only to those who bring their own containers, but initially, they did face backlash. “Any change faces resistance and this initiative was not an exception. But we were firm on our stand.” says Ashok Betraj, one of the temple trustees, explaining, “A man even fought with us when we refused to give him prasadam without containers. However, he visited the temple with a steel box the very next week.”

The temple also segregates its waste - wet waste like decaying flowers, tulsi and dried leaves are taken to the compost unit, while dry waste like paper and plastic is collected in a bin which the Bangalore Municipal Corporation picks up every 4-5 days. Five compost pits are in place, with microorganism-rich substance spread at the bottom, each with the capacity of carrying two trucks of organic waste. The wet waste is placed in the compost ring mesh, which is enriched every week using microbial blocks and solutions.

“The size reduces during composting. Every week, we spray an effective microorganism solution and microbial blocks for enriching the compost,” says Vasuki Iyengar, the technical support behind the installation of the compost units. It takes over nine months for a cycle to yield fine compost, and the pits, installer nearly a year ago, are not yet full.

The Annadana, free meals, is offered every Saturday to 600-800 people. The food is served in melamine plates donated by altruistic devotees, who are also encouraged not to donate plastic sachets of milk, which is offered as abhisheka to the deity.

The temple’s waste management system is a unique initiative, which if adopted by temples across the country, will not only result in clean temple premises, but also prevent the temple’s surrounding from being used as dumping grounds.