The process as explained by a resident is fairly simple, sustainable and cost effective.
Abhinav Agarwal with his composting pit
Of late, composting of household waste has become the flavour of conversations in the residential societies of Indirapuram. People of Indirapuram are waking up to the ugly reality of the garbage mounds surrounding their residential societies. There is also a fast growing consciousness that when cleared from the residential lanes, these stench emanating and disease spreading dumps are going to add pressure to the already exhausted landfill sites. Worse, many a times garbage in these landfill sites catch fire and spews toxic gases.
Given this backdrop, residents of Indirapuram are increasingly adopting the environment friendly technique of home composting.
Abhinav Agarwal, a resident of Rishabh Platinum who started home composting a few weeks back says, “I have managed to reduce over 60% of my daily household waste through composting and am looking for ways to reduce the rest of the 40% which includes paper, plastic and e-waste.”
After researching online for a while, Agarwal zeroed in on a Gurgaon based company and bought a ‘khamba’ to serve as his composting apparatus. This khamba a pillar like structure made from clay cost him Rs 3,000. Apart from its utility Agarwal says that the khamba looks pretty and adds a zing to his otherwise dull balcony.
According to Agarwal he incurred some miscellaneous costs for purchasing the mixture of coco peat and other substances which essentially enhance the composting process and keeps the odour at bay. “It has become my habit to put the daily vegetable peels into the khamba and cover them with a layer of cocopeat mixture. I have also asked my household help to duplicate my steps. Now my house is free of kitchen garbage,” Agarwal added.
Agarwal was the veritable inspiration for many others in Indirapuram to start composting. After he shared his process and experiences on social media people started flooding him with a slew of endless queries. “I am planning to conduct a workshop on the composting process,” he shares.
Urvi Shah, a resident of Rishabh Cloud 9 who also manages her household waste through composting says, “I started composting by asking people about the technique, watching videos on YouTube and reading about it on the internet. This process takes care of half my household waste. And I sell my paper and plastic waste to scrap collectors which leaves me with zero garbage.”
