Udvasana Seva FAQ
| Q. No | Question | Answer |
| 1 | Who are the organisers? | The event is organised by Sri Kamakshi Aarsha Samskriti Trust, Rotary Club of Bangalore, RT Nagar. The material recovery facility partner (MRF) in Chennai is Spreco. |
| 2 | Why is the event held at only one place? | This is the first available place in Chennai which agreed to conduct the event. If the response is good, with the cooperation of initial participants, the event can later be conducted at any other location also. |
| 3 | What is a material recovery facility? | This is a set up where sorting of various materials happens into plastic, paper, glass, metal etc. It may be fully automated or partially manual. The sorted materials are then sent to respective recyclers. After recycling the materials may come back to consumers in a different form. The metal of your idol may come back as a copper pot, the glass covering your photo frame may come back as a window pane and so on. |
| 4 | Should we participate on that day and time only? | Yes, this is a coordinated activity involving volunteers, temples and employees of material recovery facility. Kindly do not bring and dump materials at any other time or venue. Please remember that is the practice we are fighting. |
| 5 | Why am I donating items and being asked to pay a participation fee? | Not all the collected material is good for resale. The materials collected need skilled labour to remove parts, store and send for recycling. Some non recyclable materials need to be safely disposed of. This facility is also far from the city and transportation charges will be incurred. The venue rental has to be paid, some remuneration is needed for the priest and volunteers also. Many volunteers bring abandoned objects to the venue on the day of the event. The nominal fee of 300/- serves well for all the above. |
| 6 | What are the items which will be collected? | Photos of gods and goddesses - framed or laminated, all sizes Calendars Religious books, sloka books Idols of gods and goddesses Puja articles such as lamps, camphor holders |
| 7 | What are the items that will not be collected? | haldi, kum kum, sandal packets, threads, malais Photos of family ancestors Rama nama books which are handwritten |
| 8 | I will be bringing abandoned idols from a tree near my house. Should I pay 300/-? | No. The group collection will support your noble deed. |
| 9 | How can I volunteer? | You can form small teams in your neighbourhood and go around your area. If you find abandoned idols of photos, you may collect them in sacks and bring it to the event on December 7th. Please wear masks and gloves, to protect yourself from injury. You can also submit your interest by submitting this form https://www.skast.in/volunteering |
| 10 | What will be done on the collected articles? | A priest will perform a puja on the collected articles, in batches. The reseller will segregate resaleable articles. A porter truck will be called and the remaining items which have no resale value will be transported to the material recovery centre. |
| 11 | Will the items be immersed in water? | No. The puja virtually invokes that the images and materials of the items rejoin the pancha bhootas. Subsequently, the materials will join their respective recycling streams, paper with paper, glass with glass and so on. |
| 12 | I like an article that a fellow participant has brought? Should I buy it? | You may take any such article if you are planning to use it well. There is no additional payment to be done. The participation fee is sufficient. |
| 13 | I cannot come on the day of the event? When can I participate next? | Kindly stay in the whatsapp group you have joined. If the pilot event is successful, we will conduct future events also at other prominent locations in Chennai. |
| 14 | What exactly is Udhvasana? | Udhvasana is the process of giving a divine farewell for all religious articles. The initiative's motivation is to address the issue of people having religious articles for generations without knowing what to do with them and to stop the practice of seeing pictures of gods and goddesses under trees, temples, and roadside. The goal is to help people clear the clutter from their homes in a divine way. |
| 15 | What happens to the articles after they are collected? | Generally, the articles are collected in a temple where a priest conducts a puja. The purpose of the puja is to remove the divinity and merge it with the Panchabhutas. After this process, the articles are sent to a Material Recovery Facility (MRF). |
| 16 | What is an MRF (Material Recovery Facility) and what happens there? | MRF is short for Material Recovery Facility. At the MRF, various articles are sorted into the components they are made of. For example, a framed photo is separated into glass, a paper image, a plastic or wooden frame, metal backing, and nails. These individual parts are then recycled with their own type (e.g., nails go with metal recycling, glass pieces with glass recycling) so the material can eventually return to society in some other useful form. The idea is to ensure that the items are not sent to the landfill. |
| 17 | Why is there a charge for participating in Udhvasana? | Unlike used paper, which is a valuable resource (used to make cardboards), the resources that make up articles like frames or wooden idols have to be separated into their parts so each part can be reused. This separation requires labor, which costs money that must be paid to the MRF. Charges also cover transportation fees if the MRF is not close to the venue, as well as potential payments to the venue organizer. |
| 18 | Can I bring abandoned articles to the venue? | Yes, participants are encouraged to bring abandoned articles to the venue. There will be no charge for this, as it is considered a noble service that helps clear the environment. |
| 19 | Can participants pick up, swap, or exchange articles at the event? | Yes, picking up, swapping, and exchanging articles is encouraged completely. If participants like collected articles, they often tend to pick up each other's items, meaning those items need not go to the MRF. There is no additional fee for swapping; the participation fee is enough. |
| 20 | What are the requirements for attending the event? | Participants must come at the specified date, time, and venue. The event is not open-ended because organizers do not want the temple or location to become a dumping spot. Additionally, participants are encouraged to bring the articles in jute bags or cardboard boxes. |
| 21 | What safety precautions should be taken when bringing articles? | To prevent volunteers from getting hurt while handling the articles, participants should remove any protruding nails that may have been used to hang items at home. If an article has glass in front, it should be covered with some newspaper or old cloth to ensure safety during transportation. |
| 22 | Can I volunteer or conduct an Udhvasana event in my own area? | Yes, volunteering options are plentiful. Patrons are advised that if they have a temple nearby, they can arrange the event themselves. This includes finding a venue, speaking to the venue owner, and coordinating with the MRF to send the articles. The goal is for this to become a far more hyperlocal activity where each area takes responsibility for its own neighborhood. Organizers are happy to give guidance and support for conducting events in respective areas. |
| 23 | What request is made concerning buying calendars with gods and goddesses? | There is an earnest request to buy calendars with gods and goddesses only if you can promise the deity and yourself that you will keep them until they are dull, torn, or no longer usable. These calendars are made of very high-quality paper and hold a lot of divinity once they come to your house. People are discouraged from discarding them after only one year, as this can lead to sorrow, guilt, and contribute to cultural pollution. If one is unable to keep them long-term, they should buy simpler calendars with only dates, tithi, nakshatra, and special days. |
| 24 | How do I reach out if I have more questions or clarifications? | You can reach out to us on skas.trust@gmail.com and alternatively https://www.skast.in/contact |