Pune man turns 3,800 kg trash into treasure

Pune: Meet Firdosh Roowalla, a 42-years-old entrepreneur from Pune, who converts whopping 3,800 kgs of urban solid waste into soil nutrients daily .He helps 28 housing societies in Pune to convert their  biodegradable waste into compost.

He got the idea to covert waste into soil nutrients in 2010 when he came into contact with a Bangalore based company that works in the field. One of the housing societies in Pune after seeing his passion asked him if he could convert the society’s waste into soil nutrient and he nodded. The experiment proved successful and he stated to get offers from housing societies. Currently he converts waste of 28 societies of Pune into compost.

Engineer and manager by education and entrepreneur by profession, Firdosh, says, “Pune has 1500-2000 tonnes of garbage daily and to process 100 per cent garbage is impossible due to lack of infrastructure and finance. To dispose garbage at society is the best option to deal with increasing waste that cities produce. Since 2000, Pune MC has made it mandatory for builders to develop garbage pits at societies or else builders do not get No Objection certificate. Thus societies built after 2000, should convert garbage into compost to save city and environment.”

He says, “Societies generally do not want to pay for processing garbage that they have already dumped. I charge Rs 5000-10000 per month to a society depending on its size. My 6 labourers visit each society and mix wet garbage with bacteria powder or liquid well in pits. Once pit is filled with wet garbage we leave that for 3 months. After 3 months, this is ready to harvest.

He adds, “The only major challenge I have to deal with it is attitude of people toward garbage. Half of the families hand over garbage without segregation. People are not bothered about dumping garbage. I don’t call this social work. But I will like if more societies come forward to convert waste.”