HYDERABAD: A collective of citizens and NGOs from Neknampur, who got together to segregate puja items used for Ganesh Chathurthi celebrations, have collected about a tonne of items that can now be reused, instead of being sent to a dump yard. From 2,800 Ganesh idols immersed in Neknampur Lake in the West Zone, they managed to segregate about 250 kg of coconuts, 200 kg of fruits, 25 kg of leaves, 30 kg of rice, 10 kg of plastic and 300 kg of iron. Among the edible items collected were bananas, oranges, cucumbers, corn, pineapple and rice.
While the metal and scrap collected were given to scrap dealers the coconuts were given for processing into oil, and plastic waste was handed to the GHMC. “You can’t imagine the things people bring along with Ganesh. So many fresh fruits, money and fresh grains are just tied in a plastic bag and thrown. We sat and opened these. In fact, a lot of corn that we collected was fed to the cows that came in search of food,” said Soumya Kotra, a volunteer.