I could seive my first set of matured compost from my dailydump kambha last week. The manure [black gold] had very earthy smell and felt like soft aluvial soil. There were many composting worms which were seived away I dumped them back into the kambha. I guess these worms would multiply there and be a natural catalysts for the fresh pile.

Play a role to keep Bengaluru Safe

I got this information from Janagraha's email.

Wow! I got a huge response to my first post on home composting. There were lots of enquires from classmates, collegues, relatives, friends and neighbours. For those of you who had asked for basic doubts here you go:

I hope the others who had interest do really get in touch with dailydump team at: dailydumpcompost@gmail.com

This post is likely to interests those who actively think about what they do and how it affects themselves and others in the loooooooong term. We all know the fact that waste we generate everyday and shovel it to the carts of paura karmikas ends-up on road sides and few precious available land-fills on the city outskirts. Since most of the waste is not segregated we end-up feeding into parasites like rodents, flies and pigs at these land-fills. Toxic hazardous waste leaks into ground-water and contaminates the neighbourhood.

According to a study [conducted in 1998] almost 18% of cities waste is by households. We can safely assuming that with increasing population and rising incomes this percentage is far higher today. Bengalurigaru collectively generate more than 3000 tonnes of solid waste every day. As an individual what can we do about it? Typical composition of waste by households is:

To be Recycled - glass 0.80%, plastic 0.90%, paper 0.90%, metal 0.20%
To be Composted - organic waste 93.01%, other biodegradable 0.80%
To be Treated - hazardous hospital 3.40%

Effectively its the last category of waste which we can give it to our municipalities for treatment and safe dumping while the other two categories we can take care of effectively. I came across this solution of composting our organic kitchen waste in a hygienic, economically viable and hassle free method in May-15th edition of Mint Lounge. The answer to my search was at http://www.dailydump.org/

All we did to start active composting at our home was invest about INR 800/- and buy their product called Khambha along with accessories like [accelerator, neem powder & lemon grass spray]

Khambha sits quietly in our balcony taking less than 18" X 18" space and there are no problems like rodents, mosquitoes and smell. We face problems with maggots and I'm sure with lemon grass spray it should be gone as well.

It takes less than 20 seconds, either of mine or of my wife to check the health of our compost on a daily basis and to dump our daily waste.

We stir the mass once in three days and have had our first unit get to 3/4 full just two weeks back.

This is how a fresh pile of waste in the top most unit looked like yesterday. When covered with shreds of news paper or dried leaves it doesn't attract any flies, and its still about 8-weeks away from being full.

Once the top most unit is 3/4th full we need to transfer it to middle an start using the middle one as top unit.

This is how our middle looks like. It has been resting in the middle for last two weeks and now has almost earth like smell. Its almost impossible to distinguish the waste - which resulted into this mass of compost.

Its very important [at least that's what we both think so] that we feel ourselves accountable for the waste we generate daily and as responsible and informed [I would not term it as educated - since I don't believe that education makes any difference] citizens - with the luxury to spare INR 800/- one time and 18" x 18" space in our well ventilated balcony - to make use of it and be satisfied about it.