City Home Composting
This is the simplest
and the cheapest way of Kitchen Waste Composting for the city dweller
The composting bag
The fresh contents of the bag
The End Product ( sugarcane in the process of getting composted)
My primary purpose of composting –
I started composting mainly for managing the wet waste from the kitchen
which many times constitutes more than 80% by volume of the total daily
household garbage. While doing this, I
never wanted to increase work for the
people at home. ( Otherwise, soon people will lose interest in the activity.)
The Achievement – The daily garbage from my home has dropped to about
10% by volume of the earlier garbage.
The Modus Operandi of home
composting –
1) Purchase a nylon bag of
suitable size. (See picture above. You
get it in all sizes , shapes and colors. For ease of operation, I use 1.5’ X
1.5’ X 8”)
2) Put 5 to 6 folded newspaper pages at the bottom
of the bag. This prevents dripping of the liquid ( compost tea) from the bottom
and also aids in absorbing extra moisture , creating excellent condition for
composting.
3) Start adding all compost- able
material. I do not add any extra compost powder to this. If anyone wants to
add, it is not a problem.
4) I do not take any extra ,
special efforts to chop , shred the vegetable waste. Otherwise it will become
time and labor intensive, and soon people at home will lose interest in the
activity. Just a word of caution, This activity must be taken as whole family
activity and not one person’s dream. However ,if someone has time and
inclination , chopping and shredding will definitely hasten the process.
In about a month’s time , usable
material starts forming ( though the composting process is still on.) For a
family of 4 , the above size bag takes about 6 months to fill.
Precautions to be taken –
1)Do not keep this bag in the
sun. It ll start tearing apart due to the UV of the sunlight.
2) Do not add extra water (
unless it is totally dry.) This ll start dripping and attract the flies and
start smelling.
3) For the first few days ( till
the material has fungal growth), do not add any smelly food( fish waste or
non-veg). Once the process has set in , these materials can be added in the middle of the heap and covering from
the top as well.
4) The zipper must be always
locked. In case, you ever find any
maggots, larvae in the compost heap , do not panic. Flies will be formed in few
days and will fly away , when you open zipper.
5) It is advisable to put some
dry material like dry leaves or saw dust etc every alternate day on the heap to
ensure aerobic conditions.
6) The composting process may
attract rodents and hence it is
advisable to keep it away from their reach.
Why is it successful – 1) The nylon bag is porous from all sides
ensuring aerobic conditions and hence there is no smell. ( Please believe me.)
2) It prevents compacting of the
compost just by shaking the bag ( which is lot easier than digging through.)
3) It has zipper at the top , so
no flies, insects in search of food can reach the leftover contents.
My secondary purpose of composting – To generate ready soil mix for
new plants. For this , I occasionally bring bag-full waste ( like banana peels, cauliflower leaves
etc) from the vegetable market and start composting in an independent bag.
Normally , I have 2 or 3 composting bags in operation at any moment.
P.S. – In case of rodent menace, I follow a closed bucket
kitchen waste composting.
In case you are planning to start, please feel free to
contact me at
BY
Aniruddha Deshpande
