A way with waste

Compost chronicles

It has been one month since the composting bug bit me and I had my first yield of compost. I was moved to tears holding the moist earth that smelt of compost in my hand. I couldn’t believe that my kitchen waste was now a nutrient-rich product of use.

I grew up in a clean and green Bengaluru which was famous for its lakes and gardens. Every day we read reports of landfills being exhausted and villagers protesting against the dumping of waste in their lands. But each household can actually reduce its waste output by 80 per cent by composting organic waste and recycling paper, glass bottles, packaging material and plastic-ware.

There are many ways to compost organic waste at home. Prodded by my daughter, I invested in a large ‘kambha’ (stack composter) on October 21. I was initially apprehensive about how tedious it would be to assort waste and then store it. I thought it would be messy, stinky and unhygienic. I was in for a pleasant surprise during the entire process. There is absolutely no unpleasant odour from the ‘kambha’, no mess and absolutely no hard work. All it needs is some tender love and care.

Vegetable stalks, fruit and vegetable peels, scraps of newspaper, soiled paper napkins, dried flowers, used tea leaves and coffee powder, tea bags, egg shells, bones, coconut husk, spoilt food and used oil — all go into my composting unit and in month or two I get my sweet smelling compost! There is no need to even mix it on a daily basis. Kept in a corner, the ‘kambha’ actually looks like a garden accessory. My friends and relatives were shocked when I told them that it was actually a composter and the first thing that they remarked was that there was no unpleasant odour which is characteristic of putrefying matter. I have transferred the composting bug to three more families now and I sincerely hope that every household in the City gets bitten by this bug. Nowadays, whenever I see organic waste dumped in street corners, I have the urge to pick it up and put it into my composter. My husband thinks that I’m going mad!

Indians have a rich tradition of recycling. Our mothers carefully washed milk packets, collected them and sold them to the ‘raddiwalla’, along with the newspapers every six months. Our grandmothers reused glass jam and sauce bottles to share their pickles with their friends and relatives. Cradles and toys were passed on from the older cousins to the younger ones. Extra food was always shared with the neighbourhood dog. So why waste organic matter produced by our daily activities? Composting is a beautiful addition to this tradition and I sincerely hope that we embrace it for a better future.