Bengaluru moms Anupama Harish and Charulatha R hosted a low-waste plastic-free marriage ceremony for his or her kids that lasted 3 days. From the usage of eco-friendly decor and metal utensils to preparations for meals waste to be composted, right here’s how they did it.
In 2023, Anupama Harish and Charulatha R’s families in Bengaluru had a thrilling get started. They have been over the moon as their kids Ashutosh and Nidhi have been getting married. In February, they finalised the date for the marriage, which used to be set for 3 months later. The households now had little time to organize for the marriage.
Because the households met to speak about marriage ceremony intricacies, the groom’s mom laid down one situation, which used to be non-negotiable — she sought after the marriage to be plastic-free.
“We have been very happy to just accept Anupama’s situation,” says Charulatha, the bride’s mom in a dialog with The Higher India.
“Plastic clutter has at all times me. We already compost at house and I’ve a terrace lawn the place I take advantage of it. Even the engagement rite we organized didn’t have plastic, so we gladly took up the problem of getting a plastic-free marriage ceremony,” she provides.
Anupama additionally took accountability for dealing with the waste and making sure that the marriage used to be plastic loose. She mentions that part of the efforts required to effectively execute this type of marriage ceremony will have to be finished all the way through the drawing board, starting with the invites.
Making plans a plastic-free marriage ceremony
To scale back waste, each the bride and groom’s facet published minimal invitation playing cards, which carried the phrases: ‘We’re making an attempt a minimal waste marriage ceremony. We sincerely request you to keep away from bouquets and reward wrappers’.
Indian weddings are generally lavish and lavish. If you happen to consult with any marriage ceremony venue after the festivities are over, you are going to in finding it strewn with plastic bottles, cups, and ornament pieces. As weddings get higher, so is the wastage.
One of the vital primary waste manufacturers in a marriage is meals. In line with an editorial in Flooring Document, “A median Indian marriage ceremony generates about 200–300 kg of meals waste which quantities to nearly 20% of the meals going to waste. Cumulatively, it quantities to $14 billion value of foods.”
“We made up our minds on a menu that may contain much less cutlery and selected dishes accordingly. We additionally didn’t need any plastic cups or water bottles. We rented metal cutlery from Adamya Chetana, a loose cutlery financial institution. Meals used to be served on banana leaves. We handiest used metal plates for the reception,” says Anupama.
One would generally assume that low-waste execution is handiest imaginable in small-scale weddings. However Anupama and Charulatha made positive the template labored for his or her large fats Indian marriage ceremony. That they had greater than 1,000 visitors for the reception and muhurtam. But, no plastic waste used to be generated.
To make sure that no waste from the marriage leads to the landfill, Anupama roped in her ‘composting guru’ Vasuki Iyengar to succeed in this feat. A member of the Cast Waste Control Spherical Desk (SWMRT) Bengaluru, Vasuki along side the six different individuals of the SWMRT workforce used to be in control of dealing with all of the waste from the marriage.
In line with SWMRT, over 4,000 foods have been served all the way through the marriage, unfold over 3 days.
This resulted in about 1,000 kg of rainy waste, which used to be changed into 300 kg of compost in a while.
“Low-waste weddings are the will of the hour,” says Vasuki. “Biodegradable waste is generally blended with plastic waste and dumped in landfills. So our workforce used to be provide on the venue, and we positioned drums stuffed with cocopeat to gather the waste. We steered the kitchen, catering and cleansing personnel to segregate the waste and put the rainy waste within the drums. The paper and flower waste used to be despatched to the gathering centre.”
The rainy waste accrued from the marriage used to be composted on the Swachagraha Kalika Kendra.
He provides that by way of the usage of metal cutlery, 30,000 single-use disposables have been have shyed away from.
The use of 19-year-old butter paper for presents
Some other large side of Indian weddings is the presents. Whilst going via her attic, Anupama discovered an enormous package deal of butter paper which she had stowed away after her son’s thread rite in 2004. She used that to pack the presents for the visitors.
“I gave everybody naturally dyed shirt items. Although one doesn’t sew it, they’ll undoubtedly hand it over to any person else. I extensively utilized all of the arishina kumkuma (turmeric and vermillion powder) that I had at house and packed them in papers,” says Anupama.
In addition they used handiest recent plant life for decorations. Afterward, the bride’s pals despatched the plant life to a studio in Mumbai which used them as herbal dyes and created garments for the couple.
The moms say that it’s more straightforward to devise a no-plastic marriage ceremony. “It’s more straightforward and cleaner. There is not any waste mendacity round. The venue used to be blank always. One simply must have the desire to reside a plastic-free existence,” says Anupama, including that if each and every marriage ceremony mandap begins having a dishwasher, such a lot waste can also be lowered.
“You’ll be able to have a cutlery financial institution of 50-100 utensils among your friends and family, and flow into it round. Isn’t this how our moms and grandmothers lived? My marriage ceremony used to be easily plastic-free; that’s how all occasions have been performed all the way through my time. Lately, we want to spotlight such an tournament,” she stocks.
Anupama and Charulatha encourage us to return to dwelling naturally, like our moms and grandmothers did, for the sake of our surroundings.
Edited by way of Pranita Bhat
Resources
‘Environmental Value of The Large Fats Indian Marriage ceremony’ by way of Palak Tripathi for Flooring Document.