Waste management is one of the major environmental concerns faced by most metropolitan cities in India and to tackle this problem young Armaan Aggarwal, a student of Modern School, Barahkhamba initiated ‘Kachra 2 Kompost’ — a project that converts household waste into manure.
He shares, “I was appalled by the state of garbage piled around our home, schools and other areas. Most of us were speaking about pollution caused by vehicles but did not notice that the unattended piles of garbage are also major cause of concern. That is when I decided to start something that will help in reducing waste that goes into garbage piles and hence came up with the idea of composting.”
He continues, “It is a natural phenomenon of converting organic waste into a useful form rather than let it decay by the roadside. The aim is to educate people about recycling and proper waste management techniques and to create a zero waste society.”
He started this project last year by spreading awareness about waste management to his friends, family and neighbours. “When the project was in its initial stage, I organised door-to-door campaign and also hosted interactive sessions informing the residents about composting and its benefits,” he shares.
Armaan through his project now installs free plastic composting units at various residential areas. Talking about the challenges, he points out, -"Initially, the aim was to educate people and encourage them to buy terracotta composting units for organic wastes but I realised that people were not willing to spend. Even though they were interested they complained that the terracotta units weren’t affordable.”
He started researching on how to make composting units affordable and realised that plastics also have similar qualities as of terracotta. He shares, “The idea was to reduce the cost of the unit by half and by using plastic buckets I was able to do so.”
He made holes in the bucket for aeration similar to that of terracotta units and then continued pursuing people to use them. Armaan states, “We can put all kinds of organic waste including raw vegetables, fruits and their peels, flowers and leaves in these unit. But since I have replaced terracotta with plastic, bones are not recommended as it will take a longer time to decompose.”
Moving forward, Armaan believes that more residential welfare associations will come forward and install waste disposal methods in their respective complex. “I have been able to convince few members of residential welfare associations near my place to use these units at their homes and if they are satisfied with the results, the method can be used to decompose all the organic waste generated in the society. We can use the manure produced in the community park,” Armaan explains.
Talking about his future plans, he shares, “I am trying to contact temple authorities as large quantities of fruits, flowers and leaves are collected as waste from them. If every temple uses this technique of waste disposal, garbage piles can be brought down and the manure made from the compost can be put to use effectively.”
