6 Easy Steps To Kitchen Waste Management & Compost Making

Nowadays, urban waste is one of the major issues that are facing by the urban cities. The trend of using the packed food and drinks, packaging material like plastic bags, tetra packs, etc., has created an immense solid waste that is collected to large landfills, creating anaerobic decomposition and releasing the harmful toxin gases. Moreover, by mixing the recyclable waste (plastic, paper, metal) with organic waste, we have made the recyclable waste less recoverable. To make our city clean and garbage free, we citizens have to understand our responsibility towards environment and nature and try to reduce the garbage by following the process of waste management and composting. So let’s get together and start following the waste management techniques for reducing the garbage and stop filling the landfills. Initially, this can be done by managing the kitchen waste and convert into compost.

6 Simple Steps of Converting the Kitchen Waste into Compost:

1. Collect all the kitchen waste or wet waste like fruits peels, vegetable pieces, Coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells, and cooked food for composting.

2. Either take a big mud pot or a plastic bucket with a lid and make holes on it in a way that sufficient air can pass in the pot/ bucket. You can also dig a hole in the garden area for creating a compost.

3. Initially add a thick layer of dried leaves and garden waste at the base of the pot/bucket. Then add the kitchen wet waste, handful of compost or cow dung and some liquid like water for initiate the decomposition process, and make a final layer of dry leaves/ garden waste. Repeat the similar process till the pot/ bucket get full. Keep mixing the pile in few days. As garden waste is carbon-rich materials and kitchen waste has nitrogen-rich materials, it keeps balancing in carbon and nitrogen.

4. While making the compost make sure that the pile has the optimum level of dampness. Means, if it is dry, add some water and mix it, and if is too wet, add dried leaves and mix it.

5. Once the pot is full, cover it with lid, and leave it for 45-60 days for complete decomposition.  Keep the pile turning once in every 4-5 days, which makes the pot well aerated and speed up the slow process of the organic material.

6. Within two months, your kitchen waste will be converted into rich compost. The prepared compost will be in dark brown, moist, crumbly, and smells earthy. This ready compost can be used for fertilizing the plants or can increase the fertility of the soil of kitchen garden.

Conclusion:

Through kitchen waste management, you will not only reduce the garbage but also can create a rich fertilize compost. Following the footstep of ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’, IIP Foundation has started GarbagetoGarden - an initiative to create awareness about waste management, segregation and compost making. If we really think about our future and environment, then we should work on the waste management techniques, else our future is in danger.