Sugad puja pots: upcycling ritual ware into Planters and Décor
Sugad puja a celebration in Maharashtra during Makar Sankarati harvest festival to thank nature for winter harvest and pray for future prosperity. Women perform Sugad puja using a pair earthen pot referred as sugads. These sugads are filled with harvest produce like wheat springs, chickpeas springs, sugarcane, jujube fruit and shared with others after puja. This signifies prosperity, sharing, happiness, societal wellbeing besides marking new beginnings.
Though celebrating culture and tradition is important with changing lifestyles these sugad pots are often thrown away, discarded in parks, gardens and open public spaces. Earthen pots are made from clay which is non-renewable resource and a lot of energy is used in drying and firing to make these pots. Thus, reusing these pots would be a great idea to save resources and minimise waste.
Nonetheless the harvest festival is about thanking nature, cultivating practices to reuse the same sugad pot every year. Using these pots as planters to grow microgreens, herbs and money plants. Sugad pots can be used as bird feeders or bird water bowl. Use creative ideas to paint them use as home décor or store items like pencils, crayons, ear buds and rangoli powder. These pots find reuse in kitchen for drinking tea or making yogurt. With proper seasoning these pots can be used for longer periods of time.
If above home reuse being impossible approaching a formal recycling to give away the sugad pots is a good idea. Broken terracotta pots are used in construction sector as light weight filler materials. In industrial recycling fired clay is crushed to make “grog” which is used as an additive in new pottery making, pots made using this technique are resilient to thermal shock.
Every individual can do a bit for sustainable practices by reusing or recycling earthen pots as earthen ware are long lasting materials.
