Gibbering Garbage!

As we are moving in the land of Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan we have started acknowledging the stink hitting our nose & drains choking with every form of rubbish. We are now acclimatizing to the fact that, while we are putting our resources in rubbish it’s time to turn rubbish to resource. 

Reduce, Reuse & Recycle has been a part of ancient Indian culture compared to the global scenario. It’s a matter of pride that we started off by holding the 3 R’s in our traditions. Most Indians reuse stuff (using old clothes as cleaning rags to wipe dusty furniture), connecting our old newspapers to “raddi” & selling our junk to livelihood of “apna kabadiwala”. Having our lunches served on Banana leaves which was later fed to cattle, leaving almost zero waste.

But as times are changing, we are aping the west. Moving to the cities we have become money rich & time poor. So for time savers we have the pleasures of plastics & packaging covering every morsel we eat into. The leftovers are merrily choking the drains while we are walking over piles of garbage. These piles are hovered with party of pests. All this is leading to an end of a money rich to counting his medicines.

Also, the tragedy of commons is visible in landscapes of the dense urban infrastructure with no spaces left for landfills piling up. For those visiting the rich Indian heritage are strikingly hit with bad odour, ugly waste overflowing from containers outlining the streets & a daily thriving for stray animals. Thus, to the world, India is illustrated as devastating lives of rag pickers scavenging through life hazards.

Solving the problem begins with the word “segregation”. The dictionary meaning of “segregation” claims to be a noun. But in the real world it’s a verb to be acted upon. It’s the key to enthral the magic of rubbish to resource. The practitioners of “segregation” are the alchemists of the Swachh Bharat.

While it’s a mammoth task to turn old waste to gold, the future embarks on personal success stories turning waste to compost. These alchemists shall prevent almost half the growth of our piling waste mountains.

Reduce & reusing our dry waste like newspapers, cartons, tetrapaks, glass bottles, cloth bags does half of the task. Composting the remaining wet waste brings in a fresh perspective.

Composting is a nature’s cycle just like completing the yin yang concept of life. It is the being & non-being giving birth to each other. And like every other nature’s cycle it only occurs with healing of time.

With the transformational journey of new bye laws in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan towards citizens managing their own wet waste are falling preys to “instant” compost making machines. This could be a bottleneck to the awareness & acceptance of people making a cleaner India due to lack of knowledge & expertise in the science of composting.

Composting is the creation of food for mother earth with the decomposition of our food by little organisms thriving on the wet waste. It is a matter of allowing them to do their job. For a common man it’s just like the basic principle of setting curd at home.

Like no instant microorganisms can make curd in Indian environment, then how can any fully automated machine cook your compost instantly? Like no external automation can force the nature’s cycle, it’s extremely important to comprehend the compost cycle to clear the remaining wet waste

Composting is a process that progresses in stages & at each stage, certain types of microbes enter the pile and work their magic on it. Can all this happen in 24 hours, flat?

Conducting awareness meets among residents to highlight this issue is the next turning point towards Swachh Bharat. When the whole of India starts making compost instantly, then will realization takes place that someone needs to get rid off it, use it or buy it! For which natural & not instant compost matters!!!

 

Author:-

Prachi Nimkar
Co-founder

Eco Support Pvt. Ltd.
[email protected]