Assam’s distinctive Swachh Diwali festival makes room for “Waste to Food”

Under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs’ auspices, Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban is coordinating the nationwide “Swachh Diwali, Shubh Diwali” campaign.

By joining the Swachh Diwali Signature campaign and committing to utilize locally produced goods, donate discarded or outdated things to RRR Centers, and employ eco-friendly substitutes for single-use plastic, cities are concentrating on celebrating an eco-friendly Diwali.

Assam has used a novel strategy to handle the rubbish generated after Diwali as part of the program. In Assam, clay lamps are traditionally lit on banana trees and leaves at the doors to homes and businesses during Diwali.

Because of this, the banana tree stems utilized on Diwali night are useless the following day.

In order to get rid of rubbish after Diwali, the Assamese Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban team has created a unique scheme. The urban local authority has implemented a basic waste management procedure in order to prevent this.

In order to guarantee cleanliness after Diwali, Assam has used the 3 Rs approach, which converts “waste to food.” After the customary Diwali festivities, any banana trees, stems, and leaves that remain unutilized the next day will be given to the national parks around urban local bodies so that elephants may eat them.

The locals will chop the banana trees into little pieces and give them to the urban local bodies for disposal if there are no national parks nearby.

The municipal employees will then give the tree stems to the “waste to compost” pits or cow shelters in the center.

There are already approximately 6000 home composting pits and 104 central compost pits located in different locations to get rid of this trash.