{"id":53429,"date":"2017-03-22T02:52:31","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T21:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalpress.hinduismnow.org\/?p=53429"},"modified":"2017-03-22T02:52:31","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T21:22:31","slug":"new-zealands-largest-hindu-temple-becomes-model-zero-waste-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/?p=53429","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand’s largest Hindu temple becomes a model for zero waste | Stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of New Zealand’s\u00a0largest\u00a0Hindu temples is paving the way to zero waste.<\/p>\n

Since October Bharatiya Mandir Indian Temple in Balmoral has\u00a0been working to send as little waste to landfill\u00a0as possible.<\/p>\n

Religious events,\u00a0meals and general\u00a0rubbish have been monitored and separated to make the temple more sustainable.<\/p>\n

\"Mittal<\/p>\n
JAMES PASLEY\/FAIRFAX NZ<\/span><\/div>\n
\n

Mittal avoids wasting as much as she can at her own home and says she wants to make the temple a place where people are inspired to improve.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Volunteer\u00a0Sudesh\u00a0Mittal, the figure\u00a0behind the\u00a0change, said her dream was to make the temple a model that other temples could use to cut down on their waste.<\/p>\n

In October the temple\u00a0held a waste\u00a0audit to work out what waste was being generated by the temple.<\/p>\n

\"Bharatiya<\/p>\n
JAMES PASLEY\/FAIRFAX NZ<\/span><\/div>\n
\n

Bharatiya Mandir Indian Temple \u200bis exploring ways to become more sustainable, including adding worm farms and an edible garden.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Since then\u00a0Mittal and volunteers have separated\u00a0rubbish before it reached\u00a0the bin to ensure nothing unnecessary\u00a0made it to landfill.<\/p>\n

On February 25 the Temple held Maha\u00a0Shivrati, a Hindu festival\u00a0with more than 2000 participants.<\/p>\n

During the event 7000 litres of\u00a0milk was offered up to Hindu gods and\u00a0because of the new system about 350 two\u00a0litre bottles were recycled.<\/p>\n

“Previously everything would have gone to the landfill,” Mittal said.<\/p>\n

Mittal said she hoped through monitoring bins they could start conservations with\u00a0temple users\u00a0and educate\u00a0them about recycling.<\/p>\n

For the rest of the\u00a0year Mittal said the temple would have about 70 dinners with approximately 500 people attending. At each dinner a volunteer would\u00a0enforce waste separation.<\/p>\n

“I want to make it a place where people are inspired to improve,” Mittal said.<\/p>\n

\u200bThe temple’s also exploring other avenues to become more\u00a0sustainable.<\/p>\n

It set up\u00a0a worm farm, ran\u00a0composting workshops, and was looking\u00a0into using\u00a0the temple’s grounds to create edible gardens.<\/p>\n

Temple president\u00a0Hemant\u00a0Prashar\u00a0said the temple was well on its way to avoiding\u00a0landfills.<\/p>\n

“We want to become good at what we do and then we plan on\u00a0sharing\u00a0that knowledge,” Prashar said.<\/p>\n

Bharatiya Mandir Temple was built in 1993 and is one of 12 Hindu Temples in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of New Zealand’s\u00a0largest\u00a0Hindu temples is paving the way to zero waste. Since October Bharatiya Mandir Indian Temple in Balmoral has\u00a0been working to send as little waste to landfill\u00a0as possible. Religious events,\u00a0meals and general\u00a0rubbish have been monitored and separated to make the temple more sustainable. JAMES PASLEY\/FAIRFAX NZ Mittal avoids wasting as much as she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53429"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}