An article in The Hindu Downtown about Uma Sivakumar, who carries out source segregation and composting at home, has inspired a few residents of an apartment complex at Karpagam Avenue in MRC Nagar to start composting in their backyard.
“We did not want to throw our waste into the bins on the street, so we decided to build our own compost pits,” says S. Anuradha, secretary of Sneha Sadhan Residents’ Welfare Association, referring to the two pits dug around the apartment complex. These compost pits turned out to be one of the most cost-effective initiatives undertaken by the Association.
They paid Rs. 300 to dig the pit and spent around Rs. 50 to get cow dung for the base. The gardener collects the perishable waste from the households and drops it in the pit.
Of the 48 families at the apartment complex, at present only 10 are part of the initiative.
“We haven’t really gone out to ask other residents to be part of the initiative as we were sceptical if residents would raise any objection about the smell,” says Anuradha.
Fortunately, the residents haven’t faced any challenge after building the pits.
“We cover the waste, so there never has been any complaint about smell or other issues,” Anuradha says it takes around two months for a pit to get filled. The Association is looking at other ways of recycling paper and plastic waste, and motivate other residents to make use of the compost pits.
Recently, they received manure from one of the pits which was used for the garden on their premises.
