Make compost & incense sticks with floral waste

When it comes to the humble flower, most of us think of them as something that’s either in vases or on our lapels. Little do we realize that flowers are one of the most difficult waste streams for a city. They attract insects and birds, which further attracts animal predators like eagles, owls, crows & foxes.

In this blog, we’ll learn what all you can do with your floral waste & how our GoClean Organic Waste Reprocessor can help with them.

Read Also: WHY INDIA’S SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM NEEDS GOCLEAN COMPOSTER MACHINE?

What is floral waste?

Floral waste is the dry leftovers from flowers. It consists primarily of stems and leaves that have fallen off the flowers and also contains seeds and petals.

In India, the majority of floral waste comes from temples, making it pious to throw it into the garbage.

In an estimate, about two million tonnes of floral waste in India are discarded every day after religious ceremonies, much of which could be totally recycled.

The second most common place where the floral waste generates is banquet halls, marriage halls, or any place where people book to celebrate big occasions like marriage, birthdays, etc.

Floral waste can also include wilted flowers or flowers that have fallen off earlier than expected and are no longer fresh. It’s best to use wilted flowers to add diversity to your compost pile.

What happens when floral waste meets the river?

According to a research conducted by Phool, over eight million tonnes of flowers are discarded in the river every year for religious purposes in South Asia. This is contributing to the pollution of the River Ganges, which provides drinking water for over 420 million people.

Ways to treat floral waste

Composting flower waste

Composting your flowers is a great way to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills. It also gives you a useful product to add nutrients to your soil and garden. Composting works best with a combination of “green” material (i.e., grass clippings, vegetable scraps, and yard waste), “brown” material (i.e., dry leaves, paper, and twigs), and “carbon-rich” material (i.e., dead flower stems).

Green materials are high in nitrogen, brown materials are high in carbon, and carbon-rich materials are somewhere in the middle. The trick is to mix all these different materials in the proper proportions to create the ideal composting environment. You can simply add your floral waste to an existing compost pile or make a specialized pile of your own.

Alternatively, suppose you don’t want to get into all this hassle of effort because manual composting takes a lot of manual effort. In that case, you can use Clean India Ventures’ GoClean Organic Waste composter. It helps you convert your floral waste into compost in minimal steps & minimal time (>24 hours) compared to the traditional composting methods.

Read Also: COMPOSTING CAN HELP FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE: GET STARTED IN 5 EASY STEPS

Incorporate floral waste in your garden

If you have an established garden, you can also add your floral waste as compost directly into your garden. Simply add a layer of your compost material to the top of your soil and let nature do the rest. The compost will slowly break down and release nutrients into the soil that will feed your plants. 

ince flowers are high in nitrogen, adding them directly to the soil can be risky since too much nitrogen can actually harm your plants. Adding them as compost instead solves this problem since it allows the nitrogen to break down slowly over time.

Dry out and make incense sticks

If you have a lot of dried flower stems, you can turn them into incense sticks. Simply cut the stems into one-inch pieces and then dry them out in a low-humidity environment, such as in a cardboard box. Once the stems are thoroughly dry, add a few drops of essential oil for fragrance.

Next, use a knife or stick to push the stems into a wooden dowel or piece of bamboo. Once they’re in the dowel, the stems can be easily broken off one at a time and used as incense.

It is a great way to repurpose floral waste while creating a beautiful, fragrant product. You can sell the incense sticks or give them as gifts. They make an especially nice gift for those who enjoy gardening since they are made from recycled garden waste.

On the contrary, if you’re in a temple or banquet hall, you deal with a load of floral waste daily. Therefore, this method takes time and is not feasible because of the huge amount of waste. Also, weather conditions will be there too.

In that case, an organic waste reprocessing machine like GoClean Composter seems to be the only logical solution. It helps you convert your floral waste into incense sticks too, and in a super fast & least-effort method.

Conclusion

We use flowers to celebrate various occasions, whether a birthday, a wedding, or a religious festival. Sadly, the price of flowers is steadily rising as their demand grows. It means that it’s more important than ever to repurpose floral waste by composting it or incorporating it into your garden. It will help you save money while reducing your carbon footprint.

An innovative organic waste management solution like GoClean organic waste reprocessor can help you achieve your carbon-zero & repurpose goals.