Three-tier pot system for waste management
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Credai Clean City Movement has adopted it for buildings with fewer than 20 flats. SHYAMA RAJAGOPAL says it works similar to bio-bins introduced earlier in large apartment complexes.
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Organic way: The three-tier pot system, left, turns kitchen waste to compost.
The bio-bins used to manage waste in flats have caught on in Kochi. Ever since waste management in flats became mandatory, the builders in Kochi have devised a system using them and over the past two years, they have found wider acceptance in apartment complexes.
But the rule is not so strict for buildings that have fewer than 20 flats. Also, waste management seems to be a problem in villas, as no occupant wants to live next to the waste bin. A solution to this has been found in what is called a dolphin system or a three-tier pot system. It has been in use in such buildings in Bangalore for the past six years, says Kabeer B. Haroon, project director of CREDAI Clean City Movement, the social wing of the builders.
Jose Joseph, technical director of the project, says the system looks like a flower pot. The top and middle pots will have holes underneath and on the sides for aerobic processing, while the bottom pot will be covered. It functions similar to a bio-bin.
A layer of saw dust or organic compost can be spread over the top pot after the holes are covered with dry leaves or paper. The daily kitchen waste can be put on top of the layer and covered again by saw dust after spraying bioculture on the waste. This process can continue for 15 days when the pot may get filled.
After stirring it, the middle pot can be kept on top and the top one in the middle. The process can continue for another 15 days. The matter in the middle pot can then be transferred to the lower pot and the process can continue. After 45 days, the matter will have become compost that can be applied to plants.
“We are currently improving upon the system so that people using it will not find it a bother to change the pots manually by lifting it and the compost can be collected in a bag,” Mr. Joseph says.
Called the Clean Kochi movement of the Kerala Builders’ Forum, which had since merged with the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI), the project has been successful so far as many apartment complexes have adopted the bio-bin solution of waste management.
Mr. Haroon says that of the 334 flats and villas in Kochi, 200 have set up bio-bins. There are 56 apartment complexes which have fewer than 20 units and 34 villas where bio-bins have not become a solution to waste management for various reasons. It is here that the three-tier pot system is going to be applied.
Already, a trial run has been done with such a system in six villas in two projects. It is over a month and there seems to be little problem. This system will be apt for small buildings with fewer flats, he says.
The builders in Kochi had started the Clean Kochi movement at a time when there was no system in the city to even clear the garbage lying on the roads. Setting up of a big waste management plant for processing urban waste is a difficult task in Kerala as land is hard to come by. The setting up of the Brahmapuram plant in Kochi is a case point. The waste-processing plant here has come up after years of struggle with local people raising objections about living near such a plant. Their complaints are not without reason. The Clean City movement has spread to Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode. As the number of flats in these places has started increasing, the need for in-house waste management has become essential. As in Kochi, the system will be supportive of the local authorities in managing the waste generated in flats.
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