The enterprise produces handmade incense sticks, soap, compost and personalized gifts

The dumping of floral waste into water bodies is a major problem in India. According to a research, about eight million tonnes of floral waste is dumped into rivers and other bodies of water in India every year, choking and polluting them, and leading to environmental degradation.

A Hyderabad-based startup found the solution to the problem. Holy Waste is a startup run by entrepreneurs Maya Vivek and Minal Dalmia. The primary aim of the startup is to convert the left-behind offerings into eco-friendly and child-safe products.

The enterprise produces handmade incense sticks, soap, compost and personalized gifts.

According to a report in South China Morning Post, Holy Waste is one of a number of small commercial enterprises in the country using the dead flowers, a long neglected resource, to make incense – instead of using charcoal and sawdust, or other ingredients – as well as soap, dyes, or coloured powders for Hindu religious festivals such as Holi.

Floral waste is collected four times a week from 20 Holy Waste collection bins near a number of Hyderabad temples, trucked to the firm’s headquarters, and picked over by hand and then used to make eco-friendly products.

“Ten women are involved in packing the raw material and supplies. We pay the women for their work or buy back the finished product,” Vivek was quoted as saying in the report.

“We are planning on partnering with institutions for the specially-abled to make packaging material using recycled paper,” she added.