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From Idols to Education: Binish Desai Transforms Ganpati PoP Waste into Study Tables
M
Moneycontrol•30-09-2026, 09:42
From Idols to Education: Binish Desai Transforms Ganpati PoP Waste into Study Tables
- •Binish Desai developed MurtiCycle, a proprietary formulation to recycle plaster of Paris (PoP) from immersed Ganpati idols.
- •The initiative, Visarjan Se Vidhya Tak, transforms recovered PoP into study tables for children, symbolizing Lord Ganesha's wisdom.
- •So far, 760 study tables have been produced by Pushpam, Desai's brand, with plans to expand to benches and larger orders.
- •The process involves collecting recovered idols, reducing them to powder, mixing with natural binders, and hand-pressing into molds by women artisans.
- •Desai advocates for dedicated collection points and segregation of PoP idols post-visarjan, emphasizing respect for religious sentiments in the recycling process.
Key Questions Answered
Under the initiative led by innovator Binish Desai and his company's brand Pushpam, recovered plaster of Paris from immersed Ganpati idols is recycled into handmade study tables and benches for children.
Recovered idols are collected, broken down, transported to Gujarat, and reduced to a fine powder. This powder is mixed with natural binders using the proprietary MurtiCycle formulation, pressed into moulds by women, dried, sanded, finished with oil, and fitted with metal legs.
The project incorporates an educational component where Rs 100 from every study table sold is set aside to build a scholarship corpus designed to support a student in need.
