Efficient & cost-effective 3-tier Ebony home composter: stack up, feed, harvest & grow!

Here goes our new three-tier composter: EBONY. We named it so because ‘black’ has been the flavour of seasons for quite sometime now.

I will simply put out its salient features and I am sure that itself will speak for volumes. 

INFRASTRUCTURE

First things first: Ebony fabric containers are crafted out of a material derived from recycled PET bottles. That lends this composter a very high eco-friendly quotient.

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Is compost sieving an absolute must? Definitely maybe.

  • Should I sieve my compost or set it aside for curing without sieving? 
  • My compost is wet and can’t be sieved. What should I do?
  • My compost is dripping wet. Can I dry it in the sun before sieving? 

After all, who doesn’t like to hold fine-grained compost after weeks of anticipation? It’s the ultimate reward for any composter. Be it a rookie or seasoned one. The effect is therapeutic and the ritual/routine is a definite stress-buster! 

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Is composting as dirty, impractical, time-consuming & tedious a process as BBMP thinks?

In what can be termed a highly disappointing turn of events, the views of SWM Joint Commissioner Sarfaraz Khan on composting have hit the green activists hard. Going by the buzz in various WhatsApp groups created to share tips and experiences on composting amongst green activists as well as enthusiasts from various walks of life across the city, the joint commissioner’s take on the same that appeared in today’s Bangalore Mirror has left them bewildered. Continue reading

No accelerator or recurring expenses. Rotary Twin Drum puts a positive spin on home composting

When Mr Kishor Rathi, director of Aurangabad-based Spinform Plastics, approached me to try out his Rotary Drum Composter some months ago, I was more keen on reviewing his large-scale composting products. But Mr Rathi persisted and couriered this compact, twin-coloured unit. The company manufactures various types of composters of different capacities for both home and community purposes. Here, I have reviewed only the Rotary Twin Drum composter and added a few details on the Single Drum composter with wheel. Continue reading

Will San Francisco, Seattle & New York shame Bengaluru into composting?

Photo credit: EcoWatch.

Photo credit: EcoWatch.

This couldn’t have gotten better for those who have been trying to decentralise waste management in Bengaluru and championing composting as the best way to recycle wet waste in the city faced with unprecedented landfill crisis. At least now they can draw support from the US—so far known for its highest per capita garbage generation—for its fantastic composting mandates in many cities and push their cause forward saying, “Yes, we can!” Continue reading

My own home composting experiment, my own little triumph!

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These last two years I have spent experimenting with various community composting methods for our apartment and once a system fell in place, it got boring. Nothing more to work on, no more failures and no more small, sweet triumphs.

I thought of composting for my own garden without depending on the community compost sold at a price. We use Up’Grade (Reap Benefit) method for this which is a cocopeat-based inoculant sold at Rs 9 per kg. I bought 3 kgs of Up’Grade from the facility office and got going. Continue reading