The first difference is the volumes of waste that are managed. Individual home composting only deals with about 30 – 50 kgs of waste per month. Flats, offices and residential area composting deals with hundreds of tonnes of organic waste so problems of leechate management,pests, odour, pollution of soil and air, etc are much bigger. The human issues are also different.

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It really depends of a variety of factors. These are

Cost

Space

Volumes

Collaboration

Maintenance

Most groups do not want to invest the money required to get a centralized unit in place. While most people understand the idea of a common swimming pool, they are not convinced of a common composting facility. Many existing residential blocks or flats do not have a large space to accommodate a centralized pit or mechanical unit. Also since there is usually some political rivalry in association dynamics, over time this leads to no one taking responsibility and the composting unit going to waste! Or when a small problem is encountered, everyone just wants to dump the idea and not push to solve it.

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Yes and No. It really depends on how the implementation and maintenance of the unit has been in your residential flats or area. There is a machine that converts organic waste into compost in 12 days. It is being installed in many new sets of flats in Bangalore. But since it costs a bit, existing flats do not want to use it. In our opinion, you need a multiple set of solutions to address the waste issue. And some may not score on efficiency but win on effectiveness.

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We have two methods.

1. A number of Leave-It Pots lined up (or distributed among the landscape area) that serves as the community composting facility.
You fill one up, then move to the next and so on and by the time you come back to unit 1 the materials in it are composted. (or half done and can be removed)

2. A mix of Leave-It Pots and Patta Kambhas some lined and some distributed that serve as the community composting facility.

The reason there are many and not one large pit is that keeping volumes small makes it easier to manage problems of smell, and flies.

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The biggest problem is segregation at individual homes. Most homes are not very consistent or dependable when it comes to segregation.

The second is the journey of this segregated waste from the home, down the corridor, down the stairs (lift) to the common facility. Who will pick it up, what time, how often in a day, who will drop it into the composter, where will you leave the container, what about hands washing…….so you get the idea! The logistics are very tricky.

The third is the maintenance. Who will maintain the facility? Do the maintenace staff get trained? Can it turn into an incentive programme? Do residents take turns to monitor the maintenance………….and so on.

But we have found that if there are at least two or three committed people, then it’s easier for Daily Dump to offer and implement solutions that work for that particular community.

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Anywhere between 60 – 90 days!

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10 flats at an average can produce around 12 kgs of compost a month after the first harvest that takes 90 days. This usually reduces or in some cases removes the need to buy compost for the landscape areas in the flats.

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