MY EXPERIENCE OF HOME COMPOSTING 2

Around 2009, I read somewhere that composting is a natural process and ‘happens all the time”. The thought stayed with me and I thought I should try it out. So I began to collect all the kitchen waste in gardening containers with a layer of soil in between two days’ stuff. It looked ok for a few days and then it started leaking- so I loaded the whole thing onto another container with soil and it was ok. A few weeks later, I got the shock of my life when I discovered my unit had been attacked by rodents and what a revolting mess it was! I wished I never should have got into it. Gathering my wits by me, I tidied it- with more containers and fortified it with mesh. Still the rodents were not discouraged. So I shifted the unit to under my kitchen sink.

Now rodents had no access. Next problem was- even after 2 months everything was looking as I had put it and there was no sign of any process of composting. (This was before the internet compost coaching was common or maybe I had not yet taken to it.) Plus I needed soil and containers. I was accumulating stuff at such pace that I was running out of space and time to be able to deal with it. I thought I should add some microbes to hurry the process so I began to add curds or buttermilk. It helped somewhat by slightly hurrying the process. But still it took 3-4 months to get processed and considering that much of it was soil, the net amount of compost generated was miniscule. Sol I could manage only part of the waste generated and rest of it went to the dump.

Then I met Aniruddha and stumbled on Bokashi. Bokashi is quite elegant and incredible method of composting. First I tried with simple homemade system. It consisted of two sets of a pair of cheap plastic bins nesting into one another (total 4). It turned out to be much easier than what I was doing and I was able to process much more waste than earlier and it did not need day to day inputs. The problem was I still had logistical issues managing the leachate and burying the bokashi. In the early phase, I used to be very unpopular with folks at home who had to put up with the strong smells twice a week. Even my 5 year old son began to resent ‘compost’. Plus I was still not able to manage full volume. This was around 2012. After 6 months of struggling with this, I ordered the ‘Ecobin’ kit. I will say, I am a satisfied customer of this product and my composting journey reached destination with this final move.

It took me almost a year and a half to perfect the method...mainly because I was really not too sincere initially. Now a single scrap of organic waste does not leave my house. I have extended it use to my workplace- where it works fine 90pc of the time. It goes bad when staff change or some misunderstanding occurs...otherwise its going fine. The bin sits imperceptibly in the reception area doing its work quietly.

So folks, I have spent close to a decade perfecting the composting solution for my home. It need not actually take so much time. For the first 7-8 years I was like a rolling stone, constantly changing track. With bokashi, I stuck around and learned rapidly. I am somewhat curious by nature and continue to explore composting methods because I am totally fascinated by composting. My next challenge is going to be scaling up and I am hoping that my participation in the swacch parle abhiyaan gives me a chance to learn this bit.