Independent houses show the way from waste to garden wealth

September 22, 2014 01:46 am | Updated March 15, 2016 06:26 pm IST - BANGALORE

N.S. Ramakanth has installed a biogas plant on the terrace of his house in Bangalore. While the biogas is used for cooking, the slurry that comes of the plant is used as fertilizer. Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

N.S. Ramakanth has installed a biogas plant on the terrace of his house in Bangalore. While the biogas is used for cooking, the slurry that comes of the plant is used as fertilizer. Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

From the outside, 76-year-old retired engineer N.S. Ramakanth’s house near Seshadripuram looks like any other. A walk on the terrace will show you that it is not. A neat little garden on the terrace is yielding spinach, coriander and mint. “Raddish is on its way,” he explains. Next to this green patch is a biogas plant, which he credits for the impressive yield.

Installed about one-and-a-half years ago at a cost of Rs. 22,000, the biogas plant, which comes with a stove, has not only ensured fresh vegetables but also reduced the family’s dependence on LPG cylinder for cooking. While the biogas fuels cooking, the slurry that comes out of the plant is used as fertilizer for plants.

“We cook everything using the biogas stove. Though slightly slow, it is known to be beneficial,” Mr. Ramakanth explains.

Advocating installation of biogas plants, he says there is no maintenance once installed, barring the first 20-day incubation period where one has to feed cow dung into the plant for bacteria formation. But segregation is the first requisite.

Mr. Ramakanth has not only been segregating kitchen waste and putting it to good use, he has also channelized his neighbours into doing so, handing over separate bins to them. In addition, he has convinced bakeries around his house to contribute bread and biscuit crumbs. “I add 500 grams of crumbs to plants as they contain fat, starch and carbohydrates,” he says.

Though not many have gone that extra mile, several citizens have taken to composting kitchen waste at home, Myriam Shankar, co-founder of Solid Waste Management Round, says. “The idea is to keep high-value dry waste (cartons, milk packets, glass and anything that fetches money in the recycling market) from finding its way to landfill. Segregation is being done, but it is frustrating as the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike workers are mixing the waste together,” she says.

The other problems pointed out are the lack of an organised way to maximise segregated waste as a resource, like it is being done in apartments, and the high dependency on door-to-door collection.

With independent houses accounting for a majority of the 17 lakh properties in the city, small initiatives such as these are like “little drops in the ocean”, which, in this case, translates to less waste reaching landfills.

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