Three years into moving back to India and I am saddened by the fact that the country that can send a flight to the moon and build metro trains but can't manage it's garbage and drains. But over time, facts sank in. Population, unawareness, illetracy etc. just does not allow for such things in India. Atleast not at a pace which some of us expect. It will have to be a slow process and it might take a few generations. But for that to happen it is important that we start doing somethings that our kids can watch and learn. At the same time try and do my little bit in helping the current situation. It may not solve the problem but might create a wave for the next generation to follow.

 

That is when my father stepped in and educated me on composting. The process of converting kitchen waste into manure. He does that at his Pune home regularly. So in Bangalore, we stumbled upon www.dailydump.org , an organization run by a lady in Indiranagar who claimed to have a solution to house-hold composting. The next weekend we landed up at her house and got ourselves what is called a "Khamba". A set three modified earthen pots stacked on top of each other that make for a composter.

 

It's been an year now and we have already produced 3 batches of compost. So I thought it would be a good time to document the process and spread the message as now I know what works and what does not. So here goes. First I will explain the steps briefly and then dig into details of Tips, do's and donts etc. I have added pictures to make it more interesting.

 

Step 1; It all starts from this little garbage can that sits on our kitchen top next to the sink:

 

 

Daily kitchen waste like onion peels, potato peels, egg shells, tea leaves etc. go into this. By the end of the day it's mostly full and ready for the dump. Now, you cannot put everything into this and I will give details on how to manage that in the next step.

 

Step 2; Any waste that cannot get into this little bin needs to be manually chopped into smaller bits and then dumped into the composter directly. Like these corn covers.

 

 

Other examples of such high-volume waste is Spinach stems, Coriander stems etc. that won't fit itno the little kitchen garbage in the previous step. Now, it's not an absolute must that you have to chop such waste up. It just helps decompose faster. And helps in effective management of the rate of the decomposition so that you can compost more and throw less.

 

Step 3: Waste from Step 1 and Step 2 now go to the "Khamba" or the composter unit:

 

 

Simply open the top lid and dump the waste:

 

 

Now, it doesn't look that bad does it. And in a few days, as you will see later, it will smell nice too. Unfortunately can't convey smell through a blog

 

Step 4: If the stuff in the top bin gets a bit messy, cover it with a thin news paper before you dump fresh garbage:

 

 

Good use for your old news paper too :-)

 

Step 5: Once the top pot is full, swap the top one with the middle one. If the middle one is already full then pour all of it's content to the bottom one. If the bottom one is full then move that to another container or a pot. The material in the bottom pot is your compost anyways. It's either ready to use or just a few days away from being ready-to-use.

 

End result: This is the most beautiful part. All the garbage will turn into a nice fragrant mud. It smells like the first rain. Add this to your potted plants and watch your potted plants bloom with health.

 

 

 

And don't forget to congratulate yourself. Because not only have you reduced the burden on the local municipality but have also saved several platic bags leaving your home with your kitchen waste.

 

So now for the effort aspect of it. Lot of people see this and say it's a lot of work. Actually it's not. It's some amount of work but not a lot. It's a matter of getting into a routine. For e.g. if you spent 15 minutes sepearating Spinach leaves from their stems then why not spend another 5 minutes after that to chop the stems into bits. You would then walk to your garbage anyways, then why not walk to the Decomposter. You could even train your maid to do this and save some work.

 

Maintaining the Decomposter takes about 30 minuites of your weekend time. I am sure our planet is worth that!! The dailydump.org folks have some things to make your job easier. They provide you a composte accelerator that can keep your waste dry and help accelerate the decomposition. They also give you this nice lemon-grass spray made from real lemon-grass to take out any smell. Usually it does not smell if it's kept in a nice airy location. But just in case. And a pair of gloves to help work with the stuff while moving them from one bin to the other.

 

Now for some tips and does and don'ts. Avoid putting the following into the composter:

 

The idea is to keep it moist and not wet.

 

Other tips:

 

Add some chilli powder occasionally to avoid ants and flies. Once again, if it's in an airy location you will not get flies anyways. I have not had any flies related problems.

 

If all the pots in the composter are full or for some reason you are in a hurry, dump the garbage in your regular bin. Remember the idea is to reduce and not eliminate the garbage going out of your house. If every house is able to process even 40% of it's kitchen waste, imagine the amount of plastic we would be saving and the burden we would be reducing on the municipality.

 

Remember the over-flowing garbage is a result of bursting population of the cities. You will not find these scenes in a village.

 

The municipality of Pune, infact has anounced that it will not pick up wet garbage and that each complex is responsible for processing it's own wet garbage. It has now become a forcing function for all new buildings to incoporate garbage processing into the design. I am waiting for Bangalore to make this move.

 

So, get off your seats, save the planet. A little extra work did not kill anybody! andif it helps to clean our surroundings, then why not??