Vegetable waste composting

This is an update on my previous post on this blog about wet waste composting in a balcony.

 

Currently there is a whole bucket purely made up of composting vegetation. Pea shells are put in directly. Pumpkin, banana peels have to be chopped a bit. Harbhara, methi stems, leafy veg stems have to be chopped. I don't use mixer grinder to crush the waste though some people do. Every week or so Yours Truly turns the waste in the bucket using a couple of stout sticks. A mucky job! J The rotting and ready compost at the bottom is what is put into the plant pot. Again, right now am not putting any soil into the bucket, but a thin layer once in a while is recommended.

If you are the impatient kind, then there are also bio products available to hasten composting. You can try looking for those at your local gardening centers.

Keeping the waste bucket in a sunlit area helps. Occasionally there are a few tiny ‘chilta’ (tiny brownish harmless flies) that sit on it but so far no smell. No rodents either.  

 

Bucket to which veg waste is added

Tomato plant pot to which composting veg waste is added

Tomatoes!

Tomatoes growing in my balcony terrace garden! They're still tiny, but we're feeling good. They've grown on wet waste composting. The plants sprouted quite unintentionally from the raw tomato waste I had chucked into a plant pot. They might be eaten by squirrels or birds. They might grow into red juicy fruits. They might … Let's see what happens :) 

 

Wet waste composting in a balcony terrace

We got Marigolds by the dozen!

plants thriving on wet waste compost

the mint plant seems to love wet waste!

Wet waste composting at home can greatly reduce the amount of garbage that gets dumped on the city solid waste disposal system.  
The good news is that all you need is a small balcony or terrace that can hold a few plant pots.  

I began composting the waste since last year and am quite happy with the results. The process I follow is easy and does not use any composting mixes or cultures to accelerate the process, or any special equipment. 

Here is how I do it:

We hardly ever have any wasted cooked food leftovers, so fruit and veggie waste is the only input here. 

Chop, shred, or blend the vegetable stalks, fruit peels, etc in a mixer. Add to the plant pots. 
To date there has hardly been any smell, or problem due to flies or worms of any kind. Yes, the pots do have tiny earthworms so they help break down the waste too. 

If you have empty pots, what you can do:

• Place a layer of brick pieces, stones, or coconut husk at the bottom of the pot. 
• Add a one inch layer of soil. Then add the chopped vegetable matter. Again put a light layer of soil.  
• Turn this mix over lightly every two or three days.   
• Initially for the first 4-5 times you may need to alternate the waste layer with a thin layer of soil. 
• Later on you can just keep adding the waste to the pot and mix it a little with the compost below.  
• You might need to sprinkle a little water once in a while to keep the mixture damp.

Another thing I observed was that banana skins/peels make good compost as they decay quite fast. Adding these in the initial few layers helped compost other waste well. 

Once about 2/3ds of the pot is full, you can plant a sapling in it. After that spread the waste mix around the plant along the edges of the pot.

eagerly awaiting fragrant Nishigandha flowers

Why not community composting pits?

In brief, the rational is this: We all agree that wet garbage can be composted, recycled and used for kitchen garden.
The problems: 1. As individuals we may not have time or expertise to do it. 2. Non-cooperation or conflict among members of complex/ society / apartment makes this almost impossible to implement. 3. Many of the old buildings do not have the requisite inbuilt facilities or even space to do this.
Instead:
We have gardens or waste lands: Identify some space for composting operation. Let the corporation hire persons to handle the operations. People can dispose their wet garbage there. The resultant compost can be sold at nominal cost to the same people or whoever needs it. Since the compost heap is not supposed to smell or attract flies it would not pose a health hazard to the garden visitors.

How much time does a plastic bag take to decompose?

We often use the word bio-degradable these days. But what does degradation mean in terms of time? So recently I found this list of items and the amount of time they take to decay, decompose, degrade.

Banana Peel- 3-4 weeks
Orange peels- 6 months
Apple Core- 2 months
Paper Bag- 1 month
Cardboard- 2 months
Newspaper- 6 weeks
Paper Towel- 2-4 weeks
Cotton Glove- 3 months
Tinned Steel Can- 50 years
Aluminum Can- 200-500 years
Disposable Diapers- 550 years
Plastic Bags- 20-1000 years
Glass- 1-2 million years
Leather shoes- 25-40 years
Rubber-Boot Sole- 50-80 years
Plastic containers- 50-80 years
Foamed Plastic Cups- 50 years
Wool Sock- 1-5 years
Plywood- 1-3 years
Plastic Bottles- 450 years