Those who thought composting was simply dumping waste into a pit to see it break down, need to think again! Yes, this ancient practice is out. Besides what composting means today is prize money! In fact the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) recently bagged carbon credits worth Rs 5 lakh by making its Okhla compost plan functional. And while all of us were looking around for the best way to help the environment, technology was making its presence felt albeit silently. So, if the MCD has been a beneficiary, you could also benefit with ‘NextGen Composting’.
“Thirty to 60 per cent of the waste generated from Indian households is, in all probability, organic in nature and can therefore easily be converted into manure. Composting thus makes a lot of sense for societies, especially those in urban pockets,” says Gaurav Shorey, Associate Fellow TERI-GRIHA. Composting is an ancient practice, but as a scalable business it is still in its infancy. As composting can help solve not just our waste problems but also enrich the soil with a healthy end-product like manure, experts like Shorey expect it to grow at a rapid pace. “It is an innovation that has enabled a bottom-up solution to waste management that begins with each individual. It is slow, but in the long run tends to become a practice. The habit also lends support to ideas like segregation of waste — organic, inorganic, e-waste and others — in our homes,” he says.
While a lot of these clean and green habits are catching on in India, composting bodies like the Bengaluru-based Daily Dump believe the process must also be appealing enough to become part of the urban lifestyle. “Everyone looks at our composters and says ‘How beautiful’. To us, that is one battle won. They are not yelling, ‘Yuck!’ or ‘yes, this is all about waste — it needs to be hidden away in some unseen corner of my home.’ We find more apartment complexes and offices coming forward to start composting as a group. This one step has made people view composting as something that gives them a sense of a community,” says Poonam Bir Kasturi, Compost Wali, Daily Dump.
As of May 2010, Daily Dump has kept 4095.8 kg of organic waste out of Bengaluru’s landfills every day. Kasturi’s compact and ethnic-looking terracotta composter (called Kambha) for homes also doesn’t take a lot of space. “You can keep it in a corner of your kitchen, balcony or outside the main door. It does not smell or attract flies,” says a customer based in Chennai.
Continents away, a similar, to-be-launched venture in Washington DC, Compost Cab aims to provide consumers with a standardised bin equipped with a sturdy, compostable bag liner. Each day clients will fill the bin with their organic material, and once a week — on a reliable, fuel-efficient schedule — Compost Cab will pick up the bag, leaving behind a clean bin with a new liner. The cost would be in the region of $8 per week per bin, with no long-term commitments required, says its founder Jeremy Brosowsky, who has partnered with Engaged Community Offshoots (ECO), a seed-stage urban farm that uses finished compost to grow natural, nutritious food for local kids. “Clients who have been with Compost Cab for 9 months or longer can claim some finished soil in return. Specifically, for every 50 pounds of organics, the company collects from them, they can receive 5 pounds of fresh compost and 1 pound of worm castings in exchange,” says Brosowsky.
“Composting not only keeps organic waste out of methane-generating landfills, but also produces nutrient-rich and natural soil. Looks like another win-win situation — for eco-minded consumers, the environment and companies like ours that make it all happen,” he signs off.