This paper is concerned with the production of various flavored incense sticks from a few herbal sources and floral waste from temples as an initiative to reduce dumping organic wastes into water bodies. To minimize the dumping of solid wastes into the water bodies and prevent the usage of chemicals in production of incense sticks, an attempt was made to produce incense sticks from the flower and herbal plants such as neem, tulsi, turmeric, rose, marikozhundh etc., collected from the temples from nearby Bharathiar University, Maruthamalai, Coimbatore by reducing, recycling and reusing the organic wastes through Solid State Fermentation (SSF) technology. The present study focused on the production of incense sticks in the laboratory with an aim to infuse skill development, employment opportunities and entrepreneurship avenues to undergraduate students. Based on the available resources, the products were fabricated, typical composition consists of 14% (by weight) of sawdust powder and adhesive powder (jigatt), 12 % of herbal powder as fragrance material (by weight), 10-15 % (number) of bamboo stick and 10 % (by weight) charcoal. On average, 10-15 incense sticks were produced depending upon the diameter.
