In a world of confusing messages, where environmental problems seem so huge that each of us feel that we cannot affect them, one of the easiest ways to have a positive impact on the world is to reduce and manage our individual wastage.
Wondering what I am talking about ? I am talking about composting.
70% of the waste from each household is organic waste. The vegetable peels, the left overs, paper waste, dry leaves all this is organic waste. Typical story of this waste is that it goes into a
dustbin along with their other friends like plastic waste and polythene waste. From the dustbin it goes to the waste collecting guy (sometimes it ends up in open areas beside houses). The guy transfers it to a bigger dustbin. The municipality van collects all these bigger bins and take the waste to a dumping yard away from the city (but closer to some village). The director of ASCI was one telling me that around 2000 garbage collecting vans operate daily to collect the waste from various parts of city. Since there are huge amounts of waste collecting in dump yards and there are no organised mechanisms to handle such huge quantities of waste, the waste creates lots of issues. The soil, water, air and health of surrounding villages is spoiled. Lots of effort, lot of fuel, lots of issues! At the rate our cities are growing, municipalities are not able to cope up with such huge wastes.
Composting helps solve lots of these issues. I came across this beautiful compost design at Daily Dump and I kept reading about it. I have seen it in operation at my friend's place. He has used it in his house and all the waste from his house of 6 people for 3 months has got converted into just a small flower pot of rich compost. Otherwise that waste of 3 months would have travelled some hundreds of kilometers and still create problems. Here it has turned into a bag of compost and is enriching the soil.
Composting is a natural process of decomposition of plant remains and "once-living" natural waste into dark soil like material which enriches soil. It has been happening for ages now, especially in rural areas for enriching the soil in the fields. Now, with invention of such beautiful, easy to use composters, it can be done at every house.
Why should one think of composting?
1) This is one aspect and possibility of living an eco-friendly life
2) My waste, so I will mange it.
3) It reduces the load on public waste management system
4) Why spend so much effort and fuel on transporting waste!
5) It is simple, everyone can do it and takes 10 mins per day.
6) Results in compost which can enrich some flower pots or garden.
7) We get connected to nature, its an opportunity to understand many things about nature.
8) All raw materials are available! (currently lying in dustbins!)
When we read this, the immediate apprehensions are like Not my job, I pay taxes ... might look like just a expensive dustbins ... it might smell ... will I have time .. will I be able to do it .. I do not have all that knowledge etc. About issue like smell, they are all addressed. Meticulously designed Dailydump website has all info. There are simple solutions for it. About time, convenience, I think its just a matter of confidence, motivation and awareness. Reading more about it would help.
I plan to try this out very soon ... will update you what my learnings are :-) ...
