550 tonnes of waste picked by BMC, volunteers from beaches after Ganesh visarjan

MUMBAI: On Anant Chaturdashi, the last day of Ganeshotsav, the popular festival reached its end, and most people returned to life as usual on Wednesday. But 2,000 office-goers, club members and college and school students took a break in the middle of their day at 2.30 pm and descended on Girgaon Chowpatty to clean up the remnants of Tuesday’s revelry.
“We collected 40 metric tonnes of waste in the four hours that we cleaned the beach,” said Shubh Mehta, founder of Change Is Us, the NGO that mobilised forces for the clean-up. “This was equal to our collection over three days with the help of over 3,000 volunteers last year. The waste has clearly burgeoned.”
What Mehta’s organisation collected was only a fraction of the total solid waste across the Girgaon, Dadar, Juhu, Versova, Chimbai, Madh and Gorai beaches in the city. The total—picked up by over 15,000 BMC employees and volunteers alike on Tuesday night and the following day—stood at 550 metric tonnes. The flowers used in the poojas, called nirmalya, were 363 metric tonnes. In all, 500 nirmalya kalash (pots) were posted at every immersion site and later transported by 350 vehicles.
“Girgaon Chowpatty is the most popular spot for immersions,” said Mehta of the beach that sees the most and some of the biggest sarvajanik immersions, including the famed Lalbaugcha Raja. “What we aimed to inspire, which was the messaging we used on social media, was a dual responsibility: celebrate Ganeshotsav but show up to take care of the after-effects.” The message attracted 2,000 volunteers to come in the middle of the day to one of the biggest beach clean-ups in South Mumbai.
The BMC’s municipal commissioner Bhushan Gargani also attended one of the many clean-ups, showing up at Versova Beach at 6.30 am alongside commissioner of police Vivek Phansalkar, actor Ayushmann Khurrana and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ wife Amruta.
What were the contents of the 40 metric tonnes or 40,000 kg of waste picked up by Mehta’s NGO? A significant number of small- and medium-sized Plaster of Paris (PoP) idols, explained Mehta, whose team found between 2,000 and 3,000 such. The larger idols, he added, were hauled out by the BMC using JCBs.
The wood and metal frames on which the idols are placed were another contributor as were the artificial decorations. The nirmalya formed only around 1 kg of the collection, thanks to its light weight. According to the BMC, the other stuff found included food wrappers, water bottles, bags and footwear.
These figures suggest the unrelenting popularity of PoP idols, immersed in natural waters to boot. Almost 70% of the immersions (26,170 idols) were immersed in natural waters in the course of the festival though the BMC has several artificial tanks specifically created for this.
“PoP idols pollute water, as they don’t dissolve easily,” said Shishir Joshi, founder and CEO of the NGO Project Mumbai. “They kill marine biodiversity, including fish, as they reduce the oxygen level in the water. The paints contain heavy metals like mercury, chromium and lead, which add to the negative impact. Even organic idols that melt in the water come along with tiny metals, decorative pieces and plastics that stick to them.”
Mehta added that the appeal of PoP’s lay in its light weight but the chemicals mixed in it were toxic to the marine environment. The idols and solid waste collected by his team were handed over to the BMC, of which the nirmalya will go to a recycling plant behind the Dadar flower market to be turned into fertiliser.
Joshi’s team goes a step further during their beach clean-ups, titled Jallosh, working thoroughly to separate the disparate pieces from one another, as they send the items for recycling.
The clean-ups are far from over.
“As the days pass, the waves first take the idols in, and then gradually start throwing them back on the beach. Idols will continue to bubble up three to four days after,” said Joshi. “This is why our post-visarjan beach clean-ups are held a few days after the final day; this time it is on a Saturday to incentivise more people to join. Two thousand people have already signed up to come to the Dadar, Chimbai, Juhu and Mahim beaches.”
Change Is Us will also continue doing the work over the coming weekend, as is their custom since 2019. As will the BMC’s contracted beach cleaners.
Despite the workers paid to do the clean-ups, the volunteers will continue to show up. “There is so much waste that it needs a collaborative effort between citizens and the BMC to clean up the beaches and environment after celebrating with so much force,” said Mehta.