Chatur bhai would blow a whistle sharp at 11 A.M outside my gate and I will rush with my dustbin. He will secure the bin with a blue trash bag after removing the filled unsorted trash. Number of neatly tied up blue bags will be gathered for pick up by municipal van and blatantly dumped at the outskirts of the city.
The acute pile of waste famously known as landfills attracts cows and dogs to roam freely trying to get some food out of the trash. Back at my maternal home, the society gates are open and unguarded. Cows would come at fixed time checking out for the dustbins placed outside the house gates. Women will offer the kitchen waste or leftovers which will be consumed happily. I thought it as a great deal of not giving away biodegradable waste to waste collectors and later trembled with what I saw next. That day, a cow swallowed a plastic bag filled with food. I am aware of the incidences of cows dying with consuming heavy amount of plastics, uncovering of plastics from their stomachs etc. Where we offer flowers and ‘tilak’ to the cows on special occasions, why have we left food wrapped in plastics for them to swallow and suffocate to death. Humans have been actively creating irony of these kinds.
The whole incidence left me reading about how to deal with the kitchen waste and not giving it away as trash. There’s a farm behind my home and I would secretly slip vegetables peels and seeds. Other family members suggested it would have foul odour in monsoons and hence I should refrain from it. Knowingly, the kitchen waste occupies around 70-80% of my space in dustbin and at the end of the day is dropped at the landfills. I had to figure out a way so to stop contributing more to landfills. To the rescue, came across the concept of home composting and read about different composting structures like daily dump, true basket etc. Getting them couriered, waiting for few more days to receive them and then starting collecting kitchen waste would delay the whole process and hence, I opted for an earthen pot which was discarded after last summer.
The perfect ‘Mitti ka Matka’ became my first companion of saving the landfills from the waste which can be used for nourishing my plants and contributing to the environment Since, then I have produced 10 batches of compost, converted kilos of kitchen waste to gold and nourished my plants with real nutrition!
"The whole process also made me realize that composting doesn’t happens effortlessly and I failed at my first two attempts. There are number of videos and briefs on internet trying to make the process simpler for others but somehow we have managed to miss those".
So, here’s my attempt to make it bit simpler for you to contribute to the mother Earth and by starting your own compost in a corner of your balcony!
Hang on to the next wlog and find out the sorted version of how to compost!
Hello, I am Anjali Choudhary. Professionally, I am associated with various projects related to farmers empowerment. I like experimenting with eco friendly practices at my home and happy to share with everyone around me. I love nature and have developed this instance of trying my best to harm it less with my routine chores.