Saturday, May 17, 2014

Lets not make a waste of it

1. Process followed
There is no waste in nature – everything is reused, rejuvenated, recycled to the maximum. The amount of energy supplied to the earth is constant and this comes from only one source –the sun. But the amount of minerals and gases present are same – they just transform from one form to another. 

Carbon is absorbed from the atmosphere by trees to spur growth. The fruits and leaves produced are consumed by other animals and birds. The dropping of such animals provide feed to millions of micro-organisms that live on the soil. When the animal dies, the body is decomposed by microbes and carbon released into the atmosphere. And there continues the cycle. This is but one facet of the many recycling instances that happens on planet earth.

But humans have been exceptional in reversing this trend. We have been exceptional in producing waste that is hard to recycle – not only by the environment but even by us with our machines and technology. Before all this, many don’t even acknowledge the fact that we produce waste and have responsibility towards it. That is why you will see that there has been huge waste management drives in Bangalore and major cities.

The primary thing is awareness and then action. We decide that we will do something about waste in our apartment complex. Mainly there are three types of waste – garden, wet and dry waste. Segregation was happening in the complex albeit not thoroughly. Discussing with some association members, we came to the conclusion that we will tackle garden waste first.

One of the organizations in Bangalore with a successful waste story is “Saahas”. We visited their “Kasa Rasa” (meaning ‘Essence/Elixir from Waste ’) center in Koramangala over this weekend to learn how we can manage our waste in the best possible way.

These are some pictures that will explain the process followed. Wet waste is segregated, shredded, mixed with biomicrobes and decomposed in a pile. The pile is turned every day and it takes about 2 months for this to be converted to compost.

 Dry waste is handled separately – segregated and sold to recyclers.

2. Wet waste segregation
3.. Mixing wet waste with dry leaves
4. Shredder
5. Compost pit

6. Dry waste handling

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