ISKCON Begins Recycling Of Garbage, Makes Compost

Devotees of ISKCON collecting garbageDevotees of ISKCON collecting garbage

Mayapur, Jan. 30: The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) authorities at its global headquarters in Nadia’s Mayapur have launched a cleanliness drive and urged the devotees to join the initiative considering it as a ‘seva’ to the God for sake of mankind.

The authorities have also started making compost manure recycling 6-tonnes of waste and garbage which they collect during daily cleanliness drive. A huge quantity of garbage daily accumulates in and around the Iskcon premise in Mayapur. These include a huge quantity of kitchen and food waste, apart from daily household waste and thrown out materials by over 15000 daily visitors.

The objective behind the programme is to make Mayapur a ‘Dham’ with zero waste.

The Iskcon authorities which so far used to collect the garbage engaging dedicated sevaks and burn it out in a dumping dock has now started recycling it.

“The smoke that emanates from the waste once it set on fire, pollute the atmosphere. It contains toxic elements and other hazardous particles which cause tremendous harm to nature and human body. So we changed mind and set up a recycle unit. We are trying to make something which could come to utility”, said Harilila Das, a member of the Iskcon’s Waste Management team.

“Our objective is to make Mayapur a clean ‘dham’ so that it’s residents and visitors could enjoy pleasure with their body and mind”, added Harilila Das.

“We are making two types of composts at the recycle unit. One is bacterial compost and the other is vermi-compost. By adding bacteria to the waste we produce compost which can be used as organic fertiliser. This is being used by our horticulture department” – Pivel Katev, ISKCON. 

To make it possible, the Iskcon authorities have urged the devotees to join the initiative. These include over 5000 devotees who live at the residential buildings inside Iskcon premises and daily visitors. At the same time Iskcon authorities have launched an awareness drive as well to encourage the visitors to undertake the initiative.

“We have urged them to consider it as service to the God for sake of mankind. It is a great that the devotees have joined it with pleasure”, a spokesperson of Iskcon said.

At present the devotees who stay inside the premise have joined the initiative, these include even children. They have been collecting garbage and taking to the recycling unit set up on a land on the bank of Jalangi outskirt of the iskcon hub in mayapur.

“We are making two types of composts at the recycle unit. One is bacterial compost and the other is vermi-compost. By adding bacteria to the waste we produce compost which can be used as organic fertiliser. This is being used by our horticulture department”, said Russian devotee Pivel Katev , who is leading an awareness team on cleanliness. 

The daily cleaning team include devotees from many countries across the globe. On Sunday a team of over 100 devotees consisting children, men and women from Russia, China, Germany joined the service in Gournagar area.

Madhavai, a 5 year old Russian girl was seen carrying bags with wastes helping her parents.”She learnt importance of cleanliness in school, but are learning it in the real life here”, said Madhabi’s parents.

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