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NIRMALAYA COMPOSTING PROJECT
Every year Mumbai celebrates Ganesh Utsav – a festival
honouring the deity Ganpati with great fervour. At the
end of the ten-day festival, the idols are usually immersed
in the lakes, creeks or the ocean. Along with the idol,
are immersed various offerings, which include flowers,
garlands and the décor. The Orchid took the initiative
of helping to minimise the damage to our water sources
by conducting a project whereby these offerings can
be converted into organic manure instead of being dumped
directly into the sea. The Orchid, in association
with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation conducted
a vermicomposting project of these floral offerings,
commonly known as Nirmalaya. This involved collection
of floral offerings made during the festive season,
composting and creating organic manure. This was then
distributed to interested ALMs. Dr. Sangole and Mrs.
Sangole of the Pestom Sagar ALM association guided us
through the initial process. All-in-all, about 200 tonnes
of Nirmalaya was collected and consequently placed
in vermiculture pits in a space at the Gorai landfill
site provided by the BMC. The Orchid also distributed
pamphlets to all the Ganesh Utsav Mandals (stalls)
and on the beaches during the immersions extolling all
to segregate waste and place the same in the Nirmalaya
Kalash.
ALM CONTEST 2004
Two years back, on June 5, 2002, The Orchid ALM
Trust was set up, consisting of people who really know
and care about our environment. At the onset, the trust’s
main objective was to carry out activities that would
clean and green Mumbai, to create environmental consciousness
amongst its citizens and to motivate them to partner
with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM)
towards making the city a better place to live in.
Over the past two years, the various activities carried
out by the ALM include promoting the creation of ALMs
and assisting the existing ones, with the cooperation
and support of the MCGM and US-AEP/USAID.
Among the various activities organised by The Orchid
ALM Trust was the first ALM contest in Mumbai in
the year 2004 that was conducted for the first time
in Mumbai. Aimed to incentivize the exisiting ALM and
create awareness amongst all on its benefits, the contest
hoped to encourage setting up more of the kind. The
contest was conducted with the support of the BMC, where
waste segregation was the most qualifying point. Recently,
the award winners were felicitated in a ceremony. Shri
Johny Joseph, Municipal Commissioner, MCGM was the chief
guest at the function and he gave away the awards to
the winners at a function held at The Orchid.
ANTI PLASTIC BAG CAMPAIGN
Plastic bags of 20 microns and less were creating a
serious environmental hazard in the city of Mumbai.
It was found that these plastic bags, which were ubiquitous
in Mumbai, were choking the drains all over the city.
This led to serious flooding problems during the monsoons,
and major parts of this city would remain submerged
for days on end due to this. Hence the Municipal Corporation
of Greater Mumbai decided to tackle this problem on
a war footing.
The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai had from
15th August 2000 banned the use of plastic bags less
than 20 microns. It had been publicized by the MCGM
that the manufacture, recycling, possession and use
of such prohibited bags are a serious offence. Under
Section 390 and 394 of Municipal Corporation Act the
Traders, Distributors and users can be fined upto Rs.
2000/- for each offence. Also the Shop/Trade Licenses
can be cancelled. The manufacturers of these prohibited
plastic bags can be fined upto Rs. One lakh and/or imprisoned
upto 5 years.
The Orchid - An Ecotel Hotel, supporting the noble cause
of the Municipal Corporation's ban on plastic bag had
launched an inter-school competition wherein the schools
would collect the old plastic bags from their homes
and neighborhoods in return of which we would give them
a cloth bag. The school collecting the highest average
number of bags per child was to be invited to The Orchid
for a felicitation followed by Dinner.
We sent the concept to 250 schools in Mumbai. We received
an overwhelming response from schools who welcomed this
initiative of ours with open arms.
For this purpose, to coincide with Teacher's Day, which
falls on 5th September 2000, we also released advertisements
in various leading newspapers of Mumbai.
The students took the campaign out to their homes and
neighborhoods and as a result the awareness about the
effects of plastic was spread by word of mouth to 7.8
million citizens of Mumbai. As the campaign made news
headlines and was also actively carried by the television
news channels the effect of the reach cannot be imagined!
Thus a small effort on our part actually made big strides
for the environment.
The result…?
43 schools covering 80,000 students,
Collected 750 kgs of used plastic bags
(Approximately 3000 plastic bags of 20 microns and below
make 1 kg)
Today, Mumbai has 4.5 million square feet less of thin
plastic to worry about! |
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