A couple of green and blue bins filled with flowers and banners that read ‘Clean Canals, Green Vijayawada; Let’s Restore Lifelines of the City’ can be seen near the bridges of the three canals that run though Vijayawada.
The bins are exclusively for collecting puja material and flower waste, says Obeswara Rao, Sanitary Supervisor in the Public Health department of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC). Around 500 kg of flower waste was collected on the Vinayaka Chavithi, according to the official.
“On each of the bridges built over the three canals, we have placed 5-6 bins of 60 and 80 litre capacity. Since it is the time of Ganesh-idol immersions, we have deployed a couple of sanitary workers, too, on every bridge to ensure that people are not disposing of plastic bags or flowers,” Mr. Obeswara Rao said, adding that the waste thus collected will be taken to a compost plant in Ajit Singh Nagar, where they will be recycled to make incense sticks.
