Home Composting in India - the new thing-to-be

There are so many reasons to get it started. As home composting lessens the amount of domestic waste, it directly ease the burden of public waste disposal, saving resources and reducing pollution; at the same time it provides the nutrients for the soil for the house garden which supports the little green lungs in the populous cities.

As home composting functions with the simplest mechanism, it is easy to be understood how it works and can be done by every household. It is the great combination of pleasure and contribution.

If you have already understood the most basic formula of home compost, which is:

Raw materials (i.e. organic waste) + Time (2 - 3 months) + Container (to keep the waste) + Natural organic decomposition process = COMPOST that nourishes the earth

you are ready to start making your own home compost!

Steps:

1. Preparation

A proper vessel is needed to contain the waste and keep the compost going. Depending on the amount of organic waste produced from your home, consider how big the container should be. The type of container also ranges from plastic bucket to ceramic pot or to some even fancier ones. To start with, the simplest would do. For example, a big trash can. A few holes have to be made on it for air circulation and a stand is needed to prevent rusting. A spot with sunlight would be optimal for composting.

Here you may find videos showing how to make it your self

If you fancy some more durable ones, you can order them from the available composter suppliers. Some include:
Daily Dump
Foundation for Greentech Environmental Systems

2. Segregation

If you haven't started waste segregation at all before, it would be a nice opportunity to begin with! Organic waste like cut vegetable parts and fruit peel and also newspaper is all you need for the home compost, but you can also at the same time sort wastes into more categories like recyclable materials (e.g. bottles, paper), toxic waste etc.
More information about waste sorting in India

3. Dumping

The easiest part. You just have to dump the organic waste into the container daily and close the lip.

4. Looking-after and waiting

The compost should not be kept too dry nor too wet. If it is too dry, water should be added; if it is too wet, add dry leaves in it. Stir the contain from time to time to encourage decomposition. Remember sunlight is important, so try to keep it where the sunlight is.

5. Harvesting

Keep looking after it and wait for 60-90 days. The outcome would be some dark-coloured powder with nice odour which is useful for growing plants as compost provide the nutrients for them. You can use it for your own garden growing vegetables or put it back into the nature.

And stay tuned for the news from your local community of home compost. Ask your fellow home composters if you have problems and post your experiences too. Spread this little brilliant idea to the rest.

Forums & communities:
Helpful Gardener
Geek Gardener
Farm Nest

If you don't want the fuss to set it up youself and monitor it from time to time, still you could find help from organizations or companies which provide help and services for composting (e.g. DailyDump).

Blog: India Gardening

Urban Leaves: Home Composting

Compost.in

Doris Pui-ying Lee