Butterfly

This morning as I watched a butterfly hop from one flower to another I wondered what a greedy chap this is. Sucking up the nectar from one flower and hoping over to the next and the next in never ending routine. Millions of these flying creatures suck up the nectar from the flowers every single day and yet they never seem to run out of food.
One seldom hears of creatures of the wild  running out of food, or dying of starvation.

Why is it then that the human kind faces such crisis. Hundreds of thousands of humans are starving every day even while tons of food is wasted in other places.

We claim to be a clever race, masters of the universe, yet we cannot solve a simple  problem, yet we cannot connect food that is being wasted in one place with starving people in another.

Heraldo Goa The Newspaper without substance

Call this an angry reaction if you may, but the Herald in Goa has often been accused of sensationalising head lines even if it is completely false.
The head lines on the front page of " Sunday meet on smart city turns into musical Soiree" couldn't be further from true.
Herald more than any one else should know that the Band Stand is a regular feature of the City.
The Concept of a smart city is to make the city more liveable and improve the quality of life for its citizens.
The Band Stand is a free concert organised every Sunday as a place where people meet enjoy music and meet with friends.
The Panaji Smart City initiative was integrated into the program, repeated announcements were made to make people aware about the smart city initiative, the Kiosk was set up with two people from the consultants present to answer peoples queries.
A screen displaying details about the smart city was displayed at the venue.
Yet all that the reporter from the Herald could say is
" Sunday meet on smart city turns into musical Soiree"
Is The Herald Goa newspaper even worth reading?

The benifits of a bin free city

Panaji is possibly the only bin free city in the country. And while few may point fingers at the flaws in the system and those with a voice will dedicate large chunks of the print space to gain reader attention but heres the story of why Panaji does not have community bins.

The Trash Wave

Even as the capital city of Goa, Panaji was a tiny town of 40,000 inhabitants with most of its inhabitants living in independent Houses having large open spaces. As Goa became more popular Panaji grew many fold and houses gave way to apartment buildings. The Area where 6 to 10 individuals lived now housed 40 to 50 individuals in apartment blocks. This has immensely increased the volume of waste generated.

The new trend of consumerism has also caused us to replace local produce and home made goodies with shiny readymade products that we pick of the supermarket shelves.

Buying high quality products, which were lasting, and the concept of use – repair - reuse for clothes and footwear is replaced with low quality products that are to be used and thrown away

These trends have added to the large volumes of garbage generated

The City generates 30 tonnes of waste daily and when this waste is mixed together the only method for disposal is by burying it in large craters called land fills.

The Problem in 2003

Panaji is a narrow strip of land that is surrounded by water, the geography of the land has not provided it with space for a land fill. Once upon a time Panaji dumped its waste in a neighboring village of Curca. But the villagers opposed and stopped this practice. Today every village and town has the attitude of “not in my back yard” so where dose Panaji send 30 tonnes of waste daily.

An Innovative Solution

The City recognized this problem and made a change way back in 2003. The city went ‘Bin Free’ which means community bins were removed and instead the city offered the citizens door-to-door collection of waste. But the condition was that the waste be segregated into 2 factions wet and dry.

Over the years the city has gone a step forward and asked housing colonies and gated communities to segregate the dry waste into 4 factions of Paper, Plastic, Glass & Metal and Non Recyclables. Besides this the Medical Waste is collected separate, as are batteries and bulbs and tube lights. The wet waste from housing colonies is composted on premise in compost pits designed for the purpose while commercial and hotel wet waste is composted at a central facility.

Most of the dry waste is then bailed and sent to recyclers, the non recyclable components are bailed and sent to cement factories to be used in their furnaces as ‘Refuse Derived Fuel’ other innovative ideas adopted by the city in MSW management are the use of a Styropactor to compress the thermacole packaging into bricks which are then sent to a recycler. Branches and garden waste is put through a chipper and the mulch is used in the composting process.

The city organizes awareness programs to interact with the citizens to educate them on the importance of segregation, many of these programs are conducted for school students who as we know are the future and will also take the message back to their parents and elders.

Looking Ahead

Panaji has set a goal of achieving over 96% recycling so that not more that 4% of inert waste needs to be land filled.

Challenges

While nearly 90% of the city segregates our waste there are still a few black spots (piles of rubbish heaps) that pop up in and around the city. We aim to identify the root cause of these black spots

We need to collect specific data that when analyzed will direct the remedial actions that need to be taken if we are to achieve our Goal.

We need to better design our communication that will allow us to make our awareness programs more effective.

There is a need to identify the cost to the city for providing this service to its citizens

A Case study will help us apply to National & International funding agencies for grants and loans.

The City administration has a limited bandwidth and cannot take up these issues. We are therefore looking for institutions to partner us in making Panaji the best city in the world when it come to managing our waste.

Composting with Bio Lift

The Residents of Kamat Estate Tonca, Caranzalem, Goa.  Segregate the waste in Two Fractions at the house hold level.
The wet biodegradable waste has been composted since 6 months using the aerobic composting method.

We are now trying composting using the same techniques as before but with the use of biolift a soluble powder that is added (10 gms in 1 ltr) to the waste every day. Average waste/day is 100 kg.

Project Start Date: 2nd March 2015

Day 1

On day 3, I noticed an increase in maggots that were even climbing the walls of the pit

On Day 4 and 5 the maggots are not as visible. what is noticeable though is that there is no bad odour even though we are not putting any of the dry leaves etc on top of the waste. Another observation that is worth a mention is that after 5 days the pit has not filled up. before the use of "Biolift" the pit use to fill up in 4 to 5 days.

The filling went on for 11 days. that is the last batch of Wet waste was added on the 13th of March
the Following pics are taken daily there after.

The Biolift Solution (10gm Bio-lift powder diluted in 1 ltr of water and kept in sunlight for two hours.) is sprayed on the composting mix every day

Nomozo a myth or reality

The Concept of a carfree space in the midst of a busy commercial district is very exciting, I begin to imagine the cobblestone streets that I have visited in Europe. The street cafes,

My Compost Project

The word compost is now used freely in most urban settlements. ask some body what is compost and here are some documented answers.

Sean Dias Std 2 sunshine school - Compost Is some thing that is thrown away

Raul Dias Std 8 Don Bosco Panaji - Compost ids Food waste that has been made into manure. you collect food waste and do something to it... you collect food waste and put it in a container and do something to it



Any way so as to understand what compost really is, and to find out weather making compost at home (In an apartment is the Truth or Myth, I set out to try the experiment.

So after reading about the compost process from the Internet and some other leaflets on the subject as well as Dr Eng Gurudas Samant's Book. I decided that it was time to try my skills at making compost.

Being an active citizen volunteer and involved with the CCP's waste management team. I have been advocating to friends and relatives about how they should convert their food waste to compost by using the 3 pot method being promoted by Green Essentials. I finally gifted my Wife's Sister with the Terracotta contraption and explained to them the theory of composting. They were very excited to start the process. A few weeks later when I inquired about the progress of the compost they told me they had stopped it because Maggots had formed and were crawling out side the pot so the rubbish was thrown away and I think the pots were stacked up in the balcony.

I happened to meet Blaise at a restaurant called mums recipe in the VIE, over lunch we happened to discuss composting and Blaise told me he was running a very successful project at his home. He did admit to there being a few hic-ups before he mastered the art of getting the compost that looks like Tea Powder. The answer he claimed was vermi composting. so after my interaction with Blaise and seeing the images that he showed me I decided to give vermi composting a shot. I purchased the bin from Zarhak Moulders at INR 5900/-

Based on instructions from Blaise, I prepared the bed of stones and sand and went in search of cow-dung. After asking I found out that cow-dung is available at a farm about 1000 mtrs from my home in Tonca Caranzalem. for those that know the place it is quite a revelation. to know that a full fledged animal farm can exist in such a crowded urban settlement. Having met the sweet old lady that manages the farm and her ever helpful staff who told me I could come and take the dung any time I wanted. The next thing required for the process was to find the earth worms. I called Sachin Ambe the Engineer in charge of the waste cell at the CCP. Sachin's first question was why do you want Earthworms? so I told him of my intent. after listening to my plan, he advised me saying "the food waste will generate a lot of heat and will kill the worms." However I told him about Blaise and his experience, I don't think he fully agreed with my theory,but told me I could get the worms from ICAR. He further cautioned me again, "Make sure the compost is kept Moist and Aerated or the compost will reach a temperature of up to 70 deg centigrade. In that condition the worms will definitely not survive. I thanked Sachin and asked him for the number at ICAR, he did not have it at the time but recommended I call Yogita Mehra and request for the number.

So I called Yogita and explained to her about my experiment, and requested her to give me the Number of the person from where I could source the earth worms. She gave me 2 sources A Dr of KVV and a rep of Green Goa Works. The Dr from KVV said the worms were to be harvested in the first week of April so I should call on him only after the 8th of April. I then called Green Goa Works. After being questioned on my intent all over again, I was strongly advised against vermi composting. "just do aerobic composting, ensure that you allow sufficient aeration and moisture content the waste will turn to compost in 20 days".

I Decided to take the dive and use the bin for aerobic composting at least for the first 20 days, I will then introduce the worms while I fill up the second compartment and hope that the high temperatures would have subsided by then and the worms will help break down the semi composted waste. So wish me LUCK :)

Day 1 -
24 March Circa 2014 -
I have Finally Started My Experiment  with about Half a bucket of the kitchen and food waste combined with the squeezed pulp of a 150 crushed Cashew apples. I sprinkled the waste over the stones and sand and covered it with leaves form the colony sweepings.

Day 2 -
25th March
Added another 1/2  bucket and covered it with flowers and leaves form colony sweepings.

Day 3 -
26th March
Today the waste was a bucket full, I will try and put some science into the estimate. May be measure the bin for starts. Since I have been adding the dry leaves to top the waste the overall feel is quite dry in fact very dry. I have also been adding about 2 ltrs of water to the waste. but still the top layer seemed Dry so Yesterday I added 5 ltrs again in the evening. This morning there was a small puddle of water being formed in the adjacent empty compartment. I however added more water to the fresh waste today.

Day 4 -
27th March
This morning the waste was again about 1/2 a bucket, but the water in the empty compartment had now accumulated to about half an inch deep, I followed the procedure of adding 5 ltrs of water to the waste, but this time I also tossed the complete pile and did not add any more dry leaves. By evening the water in the empty container had accumulated to about an inch deep, at least in the center of the pit. I think the drain is a little higher than that. Since the objective is not to allow the liquid ooze to drain out. (the liquid ooze from garbage is called "Lychette". This Liquid  pollutes the ground water when large amounts are allowed to drain out into the soil and also radiates a foul odor. While the liquid that is accumulating in the empty container is mostly water It may not be such a big problem as far a polluting the ground water goes but since it is contaminated with the liquid from the composting food waste its will definitely release a bad odor. So to soak up the liquid I got some of the semi formed compost from the colony pit and added it to the water along with a few scoops of dry sandy soil.

Day 17
9th April

As you may have noticed for the last 2 week i have been busy enough not to have had the time to update this journal. but also that adding the daily waste has become a standard format. 1. Add fresh waste. 2. Turn it over so it mixes with the previous waste. 3. Add sufficient water. 4. Close the compost bin. 5. Wash hands well with soap and water.  Its probably important to mention here that the liquid that was forming in the adjacent compartment has stopped. I am assuming that the semi formed compost and sand mix that I put in it is a layer that soaks up the added moisture. also I stopped adding the dry leaf waste over the daily food/kitchen waste, well at least up till today, when I added the dry leaf waste again. that's because I sited maggots in the bin yesterday. also I thought there was a whiff of rotting fishy smell since Sunday. Here is the background as to why this may have happened. On Saturday 5th April we had a few friends over for dinner and one of the dishes was Crab Xec-Xec (pronounced Sheck-Sheck). The reason for mentioning this is that this is the first time that seafood waste has been added along with other food waste. Since the party was on and I had to make more space for the food waste in the bin at home, I emptied the bin with the crab waste along with other food and kitchen waste into the bin at night and just left it there. . The next day when I added fresh waste I did the turning over but may be I should have added dry leaves on the top to stop the bad odor. I thought there was a little bad odor on Sunday and again on Monday but when I saw the maggots on Tuesday I was a bit worried . Having said that when I did go to the bin this evening to add more fresh waste the odor has stopped. I added dry leaves over the fresh food waste, and topped it with water, but I did not turn the waste over.
The Compartment is about a 1/4 filled but the volume reduces as the waste decomposes.
The plan now is to keep adding fresh waste and topping it with dry leaves till the compartment fills up then starting to fill the other compartment while allowing the first pile to compost.

Day 74-
5 June
Ooops I seem to have deleted some of the posts I made in between the 9th of April and today. Which is nearly 2 months . So Im going to try and list down the highlights of the process during this time.

- Compartment A had little problems if any at all
- After 60 days of putting the daily waste in compartment 'A' I thought i should allow enough space to turn the waste over and aerate it on a daily basis so I moved to put the waste in the 2nd Compartment.
- If you recall the excess water that was seeping from the first compartment was collecting in the 2nd compartment. and I used semi-formed compost from the colony pit alond with a few scoops of sandy soil to soak up the liquid.
- I decided to leave this layer as the base instead of following the process of putting stones and sand as i did for the compartment 'A'
- This turned out to be a bit of a problem, since the bottom layer was excessively wet there was no space for the liqiud from the waste to go and the entire space was begining to rot with a stench  like that of a stagnant gutter.
- To resolve this problem I pulled the waste to one side put a layer of stones, on one half and repeated the same to put stones on the other.
- Being the summer break we were out of town for a week that possibly gave it enough time to dry up
- When we returned a week later I decided to clear the Compartment B completely and put all the waste back in compartment A.
- I then prepared the Compartment B with Stones and sand and started putting the waste and covering it with compost from the 1st compartment or then adding dry leaves.
- its been 4 days since i emptied and mixed the contents of compartment B with the Composted material in Compartment A.
- Since yesterday when turning the waste in Compartment A, I was getting the sweet smell of moist  earth.
- This evening I decided to remove the Composted waste and strain it
- Yipee I got the tea powder looking compost.

So well in conclusion, you can composte at home, it is a little messy at times but does not take too much to get it right.

I completed the entire process with the pit under my bedroom window, and there was no stench. or foul odor what so ever.

Two cardinal truths

Keep it Moist - Not soaking
Keep it aerated - by turning it around every day.