Two years and counting........

Its been two years and three months since I have been composting! Thats the picture of my compost pot (Before and After)

 This mango plant started growing in our backyard on its own and is surviving solely on the home-made compost produced from this pot (also known as khamba)

Today morning, harvested yet another fresh lot of sieved compost :)

Satyameva Jayate: Didn't I tell you composting is super cool?

Aamir Khan has spoken! Hopefully the nation was tuned in......      

Last Sunday morning, an issue that deserves urgent attention was finally given its share of 15min of fame or rather 60min of fame in the mainstream media. I and the supporters; promoters of 'Composting' can't contain our excitement. Its been more than two years now since I have been speaking about segregation of waste to households; communities; educational institutions (besides friends and family who are often bombarded with lectures and invitations of composting demo events from my end). Finally the idiot box spoke some sense and I hope people wake up now. 

I often ask people, where do you place your dustbins at home? The answer is mostly kitchen and the link or logic is rather obvious. Roughly 60%-70% of our waste is organic or biodegradable and is infact generated from our kitchens. Yet we continue to send mixed waste outside our homes. Besides occupying precious and scarce resources like land, this mixed pile of garbage produces the harmful greenhouse gas- Methane. What Satyameva Jayate tried to communicate to the audience, was simple and effective: 'Waste is a Resource!'The power of the simple act of segregation is immense and if we go a step ahead and start treating this wet waste at source, then we will reduce the tons of waste being sent to the landfill. Bangalore and Pune are two cities which have started doing this already.          

                                                                            
Now when I say treatment, you will wonder why should we citizens worry about it? To that, I would say, we as citizens and primary generators of waste have an equal responsibility in reducing the burden of cleaning up our city. It also makes a lot of sense to handle waste streams at generation points itself! This is also the basic concept behind 'Decentralised Solid Waste Management' which roughly translates to shifting the paradigm/notion of ‘only government or local municipalities should handle our waste’. Its application has immense benefits in terms of savings accrued at the transportation stage. It also has long term benefits in terms of planning land allocation (reducing landfilling). It can also reduce expenditure of municipalities and infact contribute to their revenue source (Sale of recyclables; compost etc.)                          
                                                                            
Like Aamir emphasised solutions to this problem are very simple, we just need to open our eyes and open our minds! There are a variety of composting options available in today’s time, both at the household and community level.  I have been using a terracotta based composter at my home since almost two years now.                                                                                          
An endorsement of this cause by a public figure is a big motivation! I truly hope that when I go out for a sensitisation demo the next time, the target audience connects more to the issue :) 
Do you want a demo on home composting? Write to me at: rozitasingh@yahoo.co.in             

You can watch the episode of Satyameva Jayate here: