So when you are searching the internet about the best way to celebrate the festival in the eco-friendly way you may have bumped into the concept of paper mache Ganpati. So let’s dig down into this and understand is this really eco friendly.
The harmful effects of POP (plastic of Paris ) idols is well known to us. The additives used in these idols such as POP, paints, plastic, steel, and fiber having an intense amount of negative effect on the environment.
The eco-friendly Ganpati’s concept is based on making the best use of natural materials in the environment to bring the best outcome. That has minimal effect on the environment and thereby being cost-effective.
Paper mache Ganpati’s are made from the term that they explain being Paper . Paper is used to making such idols. these idols are light in weight and comparatively cheaper.
These idols are decorated with colours and materials to make them a perfect idol and also to shape them. Eco-friendly Ganpati is made from newspapers, leftovers from production, and all other available means to recycle paper and use it.
If you search for paper mache Ganpati on any of your search engine you will notice that these idols are coloured extensively to make them perfect.
So let us break the myths that you have.!
These idols being made have a paper being used as a major constituent. If we dig down into from were these paper materials are originating. These materials are received from recycled newspaper and waste newspaper.
If you read the newspaper you may have noticed that these newspapers are printed with ink and paints and also been added with chemicals to prevent aging, while others sources are concerned these sources also have various chemicals to stop the process of aging and so that paper is good for a longer period of time.
While making these paper mache idols these idols do not have the strength to stand alone. So various materials are used for strengthening.
These idols are not made of just paper but to put together these materials they need to add all kinds of various materials so that they bond together and form a thick base and do not fall apart. these include glue and other resins that are not decomposable in nature. These materials are left in the water bodies after the immersion ceremony.
Polluting every living organism in the sea and on the land.
The next problem lies when these Idols are painted heavily with colours and other decorative materials. These paper mache Ganpati can not hold the natural colours as they absorb the majority of it. So while painting them it has to be painted with artificial synthetic oil-based colours, these colours contain oil, lead, and other added chemicals. These paints are not soluble in water and lead to polluting the water bodies post immersion ceremony. These residues are consumed by marine wildlife and lead to washing out a huge number of fishes to the shores.
These oil residues float on the water surface and block the penetration of oxygen thereby not dissolving oxygen in the water which leads to a lack of dissolved solutes affecting the whole marine ecosystem.
So avoid such products and join the change with Tree Ganesha.
“ Know right, choose right”