Upon noticing the mounting floral waste at a temple near her home in Gurugram, Poonam Singh, a homemaker, started a recycling business called Aaruhi Enterprises with her friend Pinki Yadav to mitigate it.

They recycle floral waste into dhoop (incense sticks), diyas (lamps), idols and more.

The 41-year-old empty nester was searching for a purpose in life, which she found in front of her at a temple.

An International Journal for Research in Applied Science & Engineering Technology report states that every year, approximately eight million tonnes of flowers are dumped in Indian rivers.

She would spend hours every morning collecting floral waste from different temples, requesting them to keep it aside. She then spent months experimenting with this waste in a small unit in Gurugram.

The first step, though, was segregating the flowers from the rest of the waste. Then she would dry them under the sun and powder it. Using these powdered flowers, ghee, ‘havan’ products, and other ingredients, she tried her hand at making dhoop sticks.

After three months and several hours of various permutations and combinations, she found the winning formula which was a combination of 16 herbs.

Since then, there has been no looking back. Every month, her venture recycles 1,000 kg of floral waste and earns more than Rs 2 lakh.

She claims that her products are organic and made with almost 80 percent floral waste. Unlike other incense and dhoop sticks, Aaruhi products don’t have charcoal in them.

Today, she collects floral waste from over 15 temples in Delhi-NCR, and gets almost 100 kg of waste every three days.

She delivers talks and conducts skill-based programmes to generate a livelihood for underprivileged women through the Save Prithvi Foundation.

She has trained over 3,000 women as a master trainer at Khadi India, National Cooperative Union of India, putting them on the path of self-reliance. It was this venture that helped her build an identity.

“We all get one opportunity in life to carve a path for ourselves. Don’t miss it. Live for yourself and do what makes you happy. The first step is always difficult, but once you’ve taken it, there is no looking back,” she says.

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