The Karnataka High Court has pulled up the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) multiple times in recent times over its waste mismanagement. Yet, Bengaluru struggles to solve its garbage mess. With the hope to address this mounting issue, a city-based NGO, Green Foot Print is on a mission to educate the children in Bengaluru to reduce and manage waste in a sustainable way. As part of their pilot project under the Eco Guardians initiative, the organisation installed a solar-powered composter at the Kodihalli government school in Bengaluru on Saturday.
“We wanted to start something to counter the garbage problem that is plaguing Bengaluru. Earlier, we have worked with a few apartment complexes to set up waste management systems. But the crux of this project is to involve children in the whole process as they are the future citizens who will be most affected if the situation remains the same. At this school, we sensitised the students and teachers to segregate waste at source,” Veena Krishnan, founder of Green Foot Print, told TNM.
The dry waste collected from the school is transported to Hasiru Dala— a non-profit that processes and recycles dry waste in the city.
Solar composters have zero operational cost. Besides, the extra heat it generates is used to accelerate the composting process.
Green Foot Print had signed a memorandum of understanding in April 2017 with the Bengaluru South Block Education Officer to implement similar waste management systems in 218 government schools in the block.
“Kodihalli government school, which has a hostel on the first floor, generates a lot of food waste. We trained the teachers so that they take responsibility to ensure that segregation of waste is done right and the students are involved in the process right from the beginning,” Veena added.
The entire process of composting takes 30 days to generate manure. The students and teachers, who have welcomed the initiative, take turns to add the manure from the composting unit to the trees around the school. They also use some of the manure for the kitchen garden that the Green Foot Print has set up on the campus.
Devishree Murthy, the co-founder of Green Foot Print, said, “The curing unit also doubles as a leaf composter. Since 60% of the waste is food waste, it will end up in the composting unit. As a result, the quantity of the waste going outside the school drastically reduces. Earlier, we used to have food mixed with dry waste. With the new system in place, in our approximate calculation, the total waste generated comes down to 270 kgs in a year compared to a total of 5,500 kg, which used to end up in a landfill.”