Zero Garbage- manage your own garbage

Interesting update is that it’s been 9 days I am collecting waste. Due to use of :lemon: lemon, :tangerine: orange pills, tulsi leaves :herb:, :cow2: cow dung, soil and water the bad smell is not coming. This drum is better than our traditional dustbin in case of bad smelling.

I am trying to collect more useful ingredients like bio culture which will help us to make composting from that we can simplify this process. Then we initiate more people towards zero garbage.

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[center]This is the drum on 9 Dec with waste it is now very heavy.[/center]

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" it is now very heavy."

You will have to process in small batches. To pulverise the waste the blades have to move at speed as it is working only against the inertia of the waste pieces. Hence the power required to move the blades is substantial. If you are manually rotating you will need a large gear driving a smaller gear on the shaft. Take a look at paper shredder mechanisms.

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The smell can also be controlled by adding dry grass, and not to add boiled rice, other boiled vegetables with lots of water content. Keep the drum aerated once in a while. If due to some reason water gets in, you should try to drain it.

The picture of our drum maintained by @vcs, who is our neighbor.

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Small tip: I have read and seen some home composters blend the vegetable peels prior to depositing it in composter. That way, you save time by not having to chop all the vegetables. Even a 5 second blend reduces all the big pieces to small.

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Tip for plastic waste: One can opt for making “plastic bricks” which is a space saving method which has potential for reuse/upcycle. The problem I had with plastic waste is that we clean and collect them. But storing large amounts is a problem. So you can use PET bottles to stuff clean plastic into the bottle (see: Bottle Bricks | Engineering For Change)

I had tried this once, I could stuff 1.5 months worth of plastic in one bottle. And they are quite sturdy. The “plastic bricks” may be collected over time to design a piece of furniture (stool, chair)

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I am posting this on behalf of Dr. Ankush Gupta.

Suggestions for enhancing composting rate and reducing smell problems:

  1. 1 spoonful of buttermilk can be added as microbial culture to the compost pile.
  2. Adding dry leaves or dry old compost also helps to reduce smell by reducing excessive moisture or water logging, which is one of the prime cause of foul smell. Old compost also acts as source of microbial culture.
  3. For composting plant waste (more dry leaves and grass), a dilute solution of jaggery can be used.
  4. A generic use microbial culture can be prepared by taking 1 spoon of what flour, 1 spoon of besan (gram flour), small piece (1-2 cm3) of jaggery, and few drops of vinegar, and mix it with about half a litre water. Keep this in a closed container (but it should not be air tight) for about 10-14 days. Many microbes will grow in it. After that stir the solution and spray in small amounts over compost pile. This culture can be stored and used for days.

Sometimes if you are not able to chop the vegetable into small pieces due to lack of some, it can be added as such to the compost pile. After 2-3 days, it become soft due to bacterial decay. Then using a stick, this piece of vegetable can be crushed, which will aid in further composting.

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Ok @jtd
I am moving it manually. I will look for shredder mechanism.
I think if we make small pieces or any other method in one drum it will be fine. I am now proceeding in small batches. Putting other waste open for 2-3 days like fruit peels and for vegetables half vegetables I am putting open and half in tumblr

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Thank you for this information.
In this, now I am doing 3 points like using dry leaves, using soil, dung and grass and also I am keeping fruits and vegetables in open it had got whitish fungi layer and it is very soft and I can now crush it easily.
Today in morning I have included old waste.

Once again thanks for that receipe of culture

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Ok @GN.
I kept drum open throughour the day and also rotate it in morning, to relase and generate air flow. I am now just adding vegetables and remaining tea powder in it.

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Thank for the advice. Please share your plastic collection photo and small post related to your work which will help us

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Do the microbes cone from the air?
If so does areating the solution speed up or improve the compost?

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Yes sir due to rotating it generates more oxygen in Tumblr and releases false smell

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Yes, in this setup, there are two sources of microbes; air and the microbial culture suggested by @GN.
Aerating the solution/compost/mixture will do good!
It will homogenise the mixture. Adding microbial culture in the form of the solution mentioned by @GN will speed up the growth of microbes. There are chances that the microbes present in the microbial culture won’t be present in mixture/compost beforehand.
Addition of it will help in both ways.

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So I did this in 2017-18. I collected my plastic waste for a year or so. And then collaborated with a local NGO who designed different types of bags, which I later tested for durability. It is not the best solution to tackle plastic waste. But it does help to increase the life (use) of the plastic.

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If you are part of a larger group (housing society, educational institute) - then you should definitely collaborate with “Safai Bank of India”. Your society can “open” an account with them and “deposit” plastic waste. You can check details here: https://safaibank.org/
Unfortunately, they don’t (to the best of my knowledge) cater to individual collections.

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Does a combination of organisms like earthworms, nematodes along with the bacteria and fungus that are already here serve any purpose here? Can these be our metaModelSystem?

@Arunan @saida786110 @KiranyadavR @Lydia and others!

@magpie @Anshu_kadam_2813 working on nematodes (on rotting potatoes) and @ earthworm groups, can the fungus and bacterial growth you see, be of any use in reducing stench in the composting process?

Because compost pit also has a lot of potato-like stuff! Can we culture and maintain nematodes, earthworms and definitely fruitflies here?

See nematode culture here! This is shockingly similar and needed here! :scream:

-DP

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Nice you have used it for making products @Adithi you are right but it not the ideal solution

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Please tell us more about this here.
If you have some experience please share

Yes, means we have different types of food materials means different chemicals, smell and all such things.

We can make combine lab. In CUBE chatshala I mentioned about moina culture but it is different but I use this example for connecting that culture and different model system part, but I am fail to explain or bridge the gap between this topics to @saida786110.

So, please help @karnamdpdurga to discover more opportunities with this Tumblr to make complete model system with more than 3-4 criteria like

Olfactory
Waste management
Composting
Culture
Chemical composition
Electronics

So, let’s discuss this also.
If we do this more people will start by themselves if they get beneficial outcomes.

We have to slowly and steadily discuss this topic as we solve basic issues with Tumblr.

Please share your thoughts @drishtantmkawale @jtd @GN @Ashish_Pardeshi @Ravi @KiranyadavR @saida786110 @yash_sheregare @bivasnag and also @GN sir

Please if possible try to make this or try to search different criteria regarding this to start on small case. For example for metastudio and chatshala community on small case.

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