VIJAYAWADA: With an objective to recycle the floral waste generated in the city, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) is planning to set up an aromatic industry under its ambit to manufacture incense sticks out of the discarded flowers. According to VMC officials, the 59 divisions of the city generate around 550 metric tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) every day out of which around two tonnes belong to floral waste. During the festive season and other auspicious days, the tally mounts to three tonnes.
At present, the sanitation workers are collecting floral waste from the wholesale market, temples, mosques and churches from across the city and shifting it to the composting yards. After segregating it into wet and dry waste at the yards, the sanitation workers are manufacturing bio-compost out of it.
Speaking to TNIE on Thursday, VMC health officer K Madhusudhana Prasad said the civic body recently proposed to set up an aromatic industry in the city to treat floral waste during a meeting recently held with the representatives of United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), Austria. In return, the representatives appreciated the civic body’s efforts in taking up such an initiative to recycle floral waste into incense sticks and bio-compost.
“We are estimating that around two tonnes of floral waste is generated at two major and 10 other minor shrines in the city. These flowers if collected in time, will provide abundant raw material for setting up an aromatic industry. The project is still in the conception stage and it may take a couple of weeks to prepare necessary estimates for materialising the project,’’ Prasad said.