Vasanthi Hariprakash
The ever-bubbly and chatty media personality Vasanthi Hariprakash doesn’t think twice before chanting, “Let’s segregate, please!” Continue reading
‘Let’s segregate, please’: Vasanthi Hariprakash
Author Archives: Endlessly Green
Swachh Kolar 3: How wet waste is composted, dry waste recycled & sanitary waste incinerated
Kolar CMC AE Kotreshappa Benni at one of the composting yards in Kolar.
If you have read the previous posts, I guess you will agree with me on this point: Frugality doesn’t necessarily mean lack of efficiency. Conversely, systemic efficiency doesn’t always come with huge spending or foreign technology. Most often, our hunt for solutions leads to divorcing ourselves from the local context and blindly adopting foreign methodologies which often fail to fit into our backyard.
If Kolar has succeeded in becoming a self-sustaining city, that’s mainly because it has evolved contextually by effectively utilising its human workforce and certain quintessentially local and time-tested techniques.
Here’s an account of how the district administration deals with each stream of segregated waste. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Adopt 2b1b, segregate at home, says Dr B Jayashree
Dr B Jayashree with two bins and one bag.
Being a versatile personality that lends dignity to any role she plays, any song she hums and any movie she acts in, Dr B Jayashree has been donning the role of an eco-campaigner to save Bengaluru from going to the brink. And that, as one can imagine, she does with aplomb. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
‘Symphony of the soil’: A must-watch for every compost lover
There are few studies more fascinating, and at the same time more neglected, than those of the teeming populations that exist in the dark realms of the soil. We know too little of the threads that bind the soil organisms to each other and to their world, and to the world above.
– Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962.
More than half a century after she wrote this, scientists from all over the world humbly admit that nearly 70-80 per cent of the micro-organisms in the soil have not yet been even identified. It is simply beyond human comprehension to fathom the mysterious realms and marvellous abundance that exists in the soil—“the living skin of the earth”. Because what we know is infinitely insignificant as against what exists right beneath our feet. Just 30-40 inches, to be precise. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
‘Behold this compost! behold it well!’
On this World Soil Day, it’s time to revisit Walt Whitman’s beautiful poem on compost. Let’s compost and send it back to the soil.
THIS COMPOST
SOMETHING startles me where I thought I was safest;
I withdraw from the still woods I loved;
I will not go now on the pastures to walk;
I will not strip the clothes from my body to meet my lover the sea;
I will not touch my flesh to the earth, as to other flesh, to renew me. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Community composting method-6: This Tallboy from Rite-Ways can make a molehill out of a mountain
Tallboy composting in progress at Esteem Classic, Rajajinagar.
If space is a major constraint in your community and all that you are left with is your basement or very little space out in the open, Tallboy from Rite-ways Enviro Private Limited, Bengaluru, can get you going instantly.
While I rate its vertical space utilisation the best of its features, speed of the process and simplicity of the method involving low labour are added advantages. What more, it gives you that lovely compost—utterly black and earthy! Continue reading
Tell your friend:
2b1b campaign: Rahul Dravid finds managing waste quite easy
Rahul Dravid
Throughout his career, the former cricket captain of India was known as “The Wall” because of his ability to weather the bowlers’ onslaught by launching a marathon that would finally wear his opponents down. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
SWMRT & KMB kick off ‘2b1b’ campaign, Mayor Shanthakumari pledges support
“Plastic is the main culprit. It has been destroying our environment. I have written a letter to the Chief Minister to ban the usage of plastic bags,” said Mayor Shanthakumari. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Swachh Kolar 2: One pourakarmika for 1,000 people, yet city-wide waste collection is over in 5 hours
After reading the previous post on Kolar, so many people want to know the WHATs and HOWs that went into transforming it into a truly and holistically clean city by its City Municipal Council authorities. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Swachh Kolar: District admin does fantastic work; the city is now a waste-less, world-class model
It all began here at the district administration office.
It’s hard to think of fitting opening lines for this story without littering them with adjectives. I am taking refuge in this hair-raising conversation from Interstellar to tell a tale of a tiny little spot on our own beloved Planet Earth.
Prof. Brand: There are so many reasons why our communications might not be getting through.
Murph: I know Professor. I’m not sure, what I’m more afraid of. Them never coming back or… coming back to find we’ve failed.
Prof. Brand: Then let’s succeed. So, back to the fourth iteration. Let’s run it through some new fields.
Murph: With respect Professor, we’ve tried that hundreds of times.
Prof. Brand: It only has to work once, Murph. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Dalit woman spawns organic farming revolution in Kolar village
Papamma from D Kurubarahalli, Kolar.
No words can describe how evolved Papamma’s communion with nature is. A futuristic thinker who battled threat to food security and has been a guiding light for hundreds of her villagers.
Far from being browbeaten by poverty, illiteracy and caste bias, this Dalit woman living in D Kurubarahalli in Mulbagal taluk of Kolar district has spawned a green revolution by changing the mindsets of many of her villagers who were reluctant to dig the earth and sow a seed. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Community composting method-4: Up’Grade from Reap Benefit gives quality compost
If you do not want to dig into your community’s corpus funds to set up a costly infrastructure for composting wet waste, but have ample space in your apartment or gated community or resort, Up’Grade from Reap Benefit is just the solution for you. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Mandur is shut down & Bengaluru is on the brink, are we ready to evolve yet?
A community gathering at Yelahanka New Town on November 21 to discuss waste disposal and composting solutions.
Waking up to this morning’s newspapers was a pleasant experience. Mandur has shut down 10 days before the deadline. Any person who has visited a landfill and can empathise with the people’s woes will receive this news with immense relief laced with happiness. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Sobha Ruby Platinum gears up to walk the green path
Children’s Day at Sobha Ruby Platinum located on Tumkur Road.
Little children questioning the human rights violations being heaped on Mandur by the people of Bengaluru, expressing solidarity towards the aggrieved lot and taking a pledge to lead a life free from landfills isn’t something we get to see during a children’s day event. But this is exactly what happened today at Sobha Ruby Platinum, a cluster of high-rises located on Tumkur Road. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Segregation-at-source rule is back in Bengaluru. What’s your take on it?
Community composting method-2: Be it 15 kgs or 250 kgs, EcoDigester handles your kitchen waste aesthetically
Here’s a solution that suits both small apartments and bulk generators like large-sized apartments, restaurants, schools, institutes, hospitals, school and corporate canteens. If you want a combined package of ease of use, aesthetics, zero operational costs and capital payback in a few years, go for EcoDigester. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Bulk generators need not fret over BBMP notice; WM & composting is no rocket science
In today’s newspapers, representatives from several apartments in Bangalore, which have been classified as ‘bulk generators’ (BGs), have severely criticised the BBMP’s latest move to slap them with a fine of Rs 25,000-Rs 50,000 if they fail to manage their own waste and compost wet waste. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Community composting method-1: Platform composting, the simplest & the best
Quite a few community composting methods have evolved over the last few years, but I thought of kicking off this series with my personal favourite: Platform composting. That’s because it’s the easiest, the simplest, the most cost-effective and a hassle-free aerobic solution to compost both your kitchen and garden waste. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Mandur & Mavallipura won’t let garbage trucks in after Nov 30, ready for protests
DSS activists M Ramesh of Ramagondanahalli (in grey T-shirt) and Srinivas of Mavallipura (first from right) tell they will not let a single garbage-laden truck enter the landfill.
Hope floats in Mandur
“Yes, we are hopeful that the Chief Minister will stick to his word and we will see the end of it on November 30.”
If “Hope is a waking dream”, we saw it come alive in all its vibrant hues when V Srinivas and Mukund Rao of Mandur spoke at length on how earnestly they are hoping for an end to the agony that’s simply beyond human endurance. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Let there be Deepavali here & may it never end…
If Deepavali is all about dispelling the darkness, it must first arrive in the corridors of power, enter the corrupt vaults of bureaucracy and annihilate the callousness towards those living on the fringes in Mandur and Mavallipura. Let this light filter out into the streets, roll between the huts and the high-rises, and settle over the sidewalks. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Until the Nobel…
Kailash Satyarthi
Let’s face this: How many of us knew about Kailash Satyarthi before the Nobel? To be honest, I had read about GoodWeave perfunctorily, but knew nothing about the man behind the mission.
Now everyone is talking about “The philosophy and work of Kailash…” This is how the media fails itself perennially. It fails us, too. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Swachh Bharath aftermath: Burning of plastic & landfill dumping worries activists
Picture source: 1group903.blogspot.com
“Today, we were driving past this scene in a busy traffic junction near an underpass. Around five-six men were burning garbage and they had around six-eight big black bags and it looked like they came from an early morning Swachh clean-up job. Cleaning up, but creating environmental damage by burning or dumping of garbage is something that is bothering us…” Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Swachh Bharath: Please do not sweep the issue under the carpet
“I am scared of these ‘porake’s.” They are not going to solve the problem. Instead, this opportunity should have been used to create awareness on segregation because all this mixed waste is going to end up in Mandur.”
This is what senior activist N S Ramakanth of Solid Waste Management Round Table said in a panel discussion aired by a Kannada TV channel this evening as a prelude to the Swachh Bharath campaign to be kicked off on Gandhi Jayanthi tomorrow. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Swachha’s new dry waste processing centre in Yelahanka set to reduce burden on Mandur
Yelahanka waited for five years for its dry waste processing centre to resurrect itself from bureaucratic apathy. Looks like it’s been well worth the wait. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Teaching Rubik’s cube to kids-2: About delayed gratification
Time to introduce the notion of an “algorithm”. From now on, there will be a handful of these algorithms that need to be learnt and applied. This concept is very similar and comes in various ways throughout education and even in most professional lives. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Sobha Althea-Azalea’s green campaign attracts 4 Infosys teams
Sometime ago, our waste management and composting methods attracted attention from none other than Infosys. In all, a team each from Bangalore and Cochin and two teams from two Chennai campuses visited our complex this March. A researcher from the New York University also accompanied the teams. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Teachers’ Day: Special tributes to a special person
It takes not just intelligence, discipline and commitment, but also a good human being to be a good teacher. Krishna Kannan has been all that and more for my little girl Gautami for nearly two years now. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
Teaching Rubik’s cube to kids-1: It begins with parents’ perseverance
About three months ago, we brought a Rubik’s cube home to play with, but mostly with the intent of getting our six-year-old girl interested in it. A few days ago, my daughter managed to solve the entire cube for the first time without any help! Continue reading
Tell your friend:
‘Mandur? Where is that? Or did you mean, Maddur?’
I was at an institute located in Rajajinagar yesterday to exchange my views on a free-from-landfill future. A brief interaction with 25-30 undergraduate girls and boys revealed that they had heard of only Maddur, not Mandur. They had no clue about segregation at source. Nor had they heard their parents or relatives talk about segregation at source. Continue reading
Tell your friend:
That quintessential something
The unmanoeuvrability of death has taken you to a lane where no raindrop will evaporate in vain. No flower will wither in pain. No bird will sing out of season. Continue reading
ENDLESSLY GREEN 