Difference between revisions of "Waste-Management/C2/Wet-waste-management-composting/English"

Title Slide

Another method of treating municipal solid waste is called composting.

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Step 1

Select any large container (basket/ earthen pot/ bin) with a height of not more than 3 feet, with a suitable width.

Suitable to fit sufficient amount of wet waste generated by the family.

It is assumed that a family of 4 generates 600-700 gms of wet waste per day.

Compost takes about 30 days to be created in home composting conditions.

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Ensure that it has proper aeration.

If not, drill suitable sized holes on the sides, bottom and lid of the container.

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Add dry leaves/lump-free old compost/ loose soil/ loose coconut husk at the bottom of the container.

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• Add your kitchen waste to the compost bin.
• Ensure that you put the kitchen waste in lightly, without pressing down hard.
• Strain as much water as possible from any leftover food item before adding it into the compost bin.
• Try to make small pieces (not paste) of the waste before adding it in.

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Sprinkle a few drops of buttermilk (if desired) and some garden soil on top to ensure the waste is fully covered.

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Properly cover the bin with a lid from the top.

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• Repeat this process daily.
• Everyday prior to adding the waste, check the contents for moisture/smell.
• Wipe any water droplets off the cover.

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• Start the same process with another container, once the first container is about 80% full.
• For a family of 3-4 people, generally 2 containers are sufficient.
• Keep a record of start and end dates for every container.

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In about 30-35 days, the compost will be ready.

FAQ 1: My compost bin is smelling unpleasant. What should I do?

The reasons could be

1. too much moisture/watery contents
2. less/no aeration, lumpy contents

or

1. improper addition of waste

Solution: Try one/more of these steps:

1. Churn the contents
2. Try to cut long stems into pieces of about 1-2 inches
3. Loosen the waste while adding and don’t press down after adding
4. If more waste is to be added on the same day, make alternate layers of waste and dry leaves/loose soil
5. Add more soil/ dry leaves/ cocopeat/ shredded paper
6. Keep the bin open for some time for moisture to escape
7. If you are using a plastic bin/ bucket, try to add more holes/perforations
8. Try to dry the wet waste before adding

My composting process seems to be going slowly. What can I do?

Explanation: The reason could be that the contents are too dry.

There needs to be additional dry components added to the compost to enable an efficient process.

Items such as egg shells/ dry leaves/ old soil/ hard stems of vegetables can be added as the dry component.

Solutions:

1. Sprinkle (don’t pour) water on top
2. Try to add more green waste
3. Try to shred the hard contents to as small a size as possible prior to adding it to the compost bin
4. Sometimes adding a different source of bacterium helps.

For eg: buttermilk, EM solution, old compost

Explanation: Culture is a mixture of microbes used to speed up or aid the composting process.

A culture is not essential for composting to start.

Solution: the following things can be used as culture

A slurry of

• Cow dung,
• Buttermilk,
• A handful of old compost
• Garden soil
• Jeevamrut or EM solutions which are easily available in the market, can also be used.

Explanation: Maggots/ slugs don’t harm the compost or you.

Solution: Can be avoided by putting netting on the bigger holes in the compost bin

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Additionally, always cover the bin contents with dry leaves as the top layer.

Answer: Although anything that comes from the earth can go back to it, there are some exceptions.

All organic matter take different times to decompose.

Items like coconut shells, chicken/ fish bones, etc. take a very long time in the home compost bin.

They need to be shredded or broken into tiny pieces to decompose faster.

Answer: Ready compost is black, soil-like matter with an earthy smell.

Sieving might be required to remove any non-composted parts.

It can be used in the home garden/pots, along with soil and coconut husk to grow fresh plants.

Compost should be properly dried before storing it.

In this tutorial we learnt about:

• Wet waste management composting

• is a ‘not for profit’ organisation
• primarily to improve waste management
• and reduce environmental pollution.

For more details, please visit http://spoken-tutorial.org

• Green Communities Foundation
• and the Spoken Tutorial Project, IIT Bombay.

This is Nancy Varkey signing off. Thanks for joining.