Lane Composter, An excellent example of decentralized waste managementOur Waste Our Responsibility

Voice over: Anu Govind
Video Editing: Vasuki Iyengar

This is a residential neighborhood in HSR Layout, Bangalore. Here in the video you will see how they are managing their waste within the locality using a Lane Composter. The garbage collection auto comes daily to collect the waste from the area. This is called an auto tipper and is used to collect kitchen waste. The bags on the side are used for reject waste like sanitary pads and diapers.

The waste collector takes the wet waste bin from each house and empties it into one large green bin. There are about 40 houses on this street and they generate an average of 30kgs of kitchen waste per day.
While collecting the waste it is ensured that residents follow good segregation practice and do not include any kind of liner in the bin.
Once the green bin is filled up, it is taken to the lane composter on the street. It is located near a volunteer's house, who is responsible for it.

This particular lane composter was sponsored by a corporate as part of a 'Waste to Resource' program.
The kitchen waste is emptied into the lane composter and then a rake is used to spread it evenly. Any bits of plastic if seen, is removed immediately.
A handful of composting microbial powder is sprinkled on the waste, which helps to accelerate the decomposition process.
Then it is covered with regular cocopeat. The microbial powder and cocopeat is kept at the volunteer's home.

Periodic checks by the supervisor is critical for a smooth functioning of the lane composter. If dry leaves are available from the nearby trees, it is also collected and added to the composter. It is very important to maintain the ratio 1:1 of the kitchen waste and brown matter like cocopeat and dry leaves.
This process is repeated daily. After 2 months the front door of the composter is opened to harvest the compost. Beautiful black gold is ready . It is moist and and has a lovely earthy smell to it. The compost is used for feeding the trees and plants in the area and the neighborhood park.

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