Residents fed up with the stench from the waste processing centres of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) can expect help from an unlikely quarter — Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR).
The country’s premier horticultural research organisation has joined hands with the BBMP to reduce the stench and also double the rate of decomposition of waste. The IIHR will deploy “microbial intervention” method at one of the BBMP’s composting units at Doddabidarakallu on an experimental basis. If the experiment is a success, other waste units too could adopt this method.
Urban waste
“Generally, decomposition of urban waste requires 75 to 150 days. We have developed a microbial culture that can reduce the time required for decomposition to just 40 to 65 days,” said A.N. Ganeshamurthy, principal scientist and head of the Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, IIHR.
The scientist told The Hindu that the BBMP’s present method of turning waste into compost was “faulty”. Care has not been taken to ensure proper aeration of the material during the process of decomposition. This is the main reason for the stench, he said.
Also, the volume of garbage being delivered to the waste processing centres was so high that authorities were not even waiting for the complete decomposition of the material before replacing it with a new load, he said. “It is not possible to completely stop the stench. But it can definitely be reduced by 50% through microbial intervention,” he maintained.
The IIHR also wants to increase the demand for the final product of compost by adding value to it through microbial consortium comprising multiple bio-fertilizers.
