The whole world is coming to a stand still and the Earth is using the time to heal. We hear heartening news of animals roaming around places that were rightfully theirs, the air clearing up, and sights that were not seen before now being seen. Our lives too would have come to a stand still but not for the birds, bees and trees. The earth is truly healing.
Back home our lives are getting into a routine. Planning and making 3 meals for the day takes up the biggest chunk of our time. This also generates enough kitchen waste in the process.
This is a good opportunity to evaluate the kind of waste we generate as a family.
Did you know almost 60 percent of the waste that we generate is organic waste? It could probably be more during this lockdown as we are cooking more and resorting to less readymade food. We might not have all the cardboard boxes or bags from online shopping but we do have enough waste generated from just cooking 3 meals. Disposing this waste is now probably very difficult in many households. Even if we do so, our sanitation workers are putting their lives at risk more than ever now to clear the waste we generate.
So how can we help them as well as the Earth? We compost!
The organic waste we produce can be composted even in small apartments to generate great manure for plants. Composting can be done in many ways. A very effective way is to use a Khambha—a 3 or 4 tier terracotta pot system with which kitchen waste is composted with the help of microbes. The pots are rotated to ensure a continuous process of adding kitchen waste and the harvesting of compost. Some households even practice this composting with the help of arranging 2 or more terracotta pots linearly.
When done right composting is a completely odour-free process.
Did you know that the compost we get is gold for the soil? Even if you don’t have a big garden, just sprinkling the compost to your balcony pots or below a nearby tree can do wonders. You could also save it for later and gift it to friends. The joy in their faces will prove the value of pure compost, especially for ardent gardeners.
The maintenance of the khambha is super easy and does not take up too much time. Like any other habit of ours it will soon become a way of living to start composting our organic waste.
Here is how we do it at our place. Over the course of this lockdown we have seen the full cycle of how our kitchen waste has been converted into compost. We could see the magic of nature happening in front of our eyes. What we take from her, we give back. And she gives us more!
If you want to know more on how to use a khambha and composting, watch this video.
Its always a good time to start composting. But this lockdown time is probably even better!
