Optimising your compost pile

A great little post from Root Simple, a blog dedicated to DIY farming at home, on how to manage the optimal compost pile.  It's all to do with temperature and the post really highlights the simplicity of it.  A great insight for all those into home gardening and roof farming.

Optimal temperature for a compost pile should be kept between 55 C (131 F) and 73 C (163 F) the red bands above.  When the temperature dips below this, it should be turned over.  Furthermore, from the post,

• You can make sure that the pile does not get too hot. Above 71 C (160° F)  you start to kill off the thermophilic bacteria that decompose your pile. To decrease temperature you turn and add more carbon material and water.
• Washington State University recommends subjecting all of the pile to temperatures above 65 C (150° F) to kill potential pathogens. I’m fairly certain that, with the turn I did at day 14, all of the pile got up to 65C (150°F).
• Weed seeds are killed above 55 C (130°F)–another reason to watch temperature.
• Failing to get high temperatures can be an indication of too much carbon or a lack of water. To correct, add more nitrogen and water and turn.
• A loss of temperature could indicate that the pile is going anaerobic. The solution is to add more carbon material and turn.

Zero waste at home

An interesting article in the Hindu property plus supplement last w.e. caught my eye.

Bangalore based Daily Dump offer a range of composting solutions to recycle your bio-degradable waste at home and use it as manure for your garden or roof-top plants.

Over 60% of home waste can be recycles this way, a small step towards alleviating the garbage problem with landfills filling up with a mix of non-biodegradable waste such as metals and plastics which reduces the efficiency of degrading organic waste.  Segregating our waste is a must for a sustainable future.  Here is an easy way to start.  If you live in Chennai, Kuppa Thotti offers an interesting service to pick up your recyclable trash such as metals, plastics and paper.

Lets lay some roads!

The invention has taken place...

The innovation has been explored and is ready to be executed...

What’s next?

The Hindu : NATIONAL / TAMIL NADU : Plastic collection on Wednesdays

The ingenious, resourceful contrivance of using plastics in the laying of roads is now facing a peculiar and unexpected snag. Believe it or not… The process has come to a screeching halt due to the lack of (usable) shredded plastic!

The answer to this rather unbelievable problem lies in the hands of the everyday consumer. The corporation of Chennai has now decided to go door-to-door collecting daily usage plastics specially, thin carry bags. They have declared every Wednesday as plastic collection day. The local conservancy staff will travel in tricycles around the city collecting plastics from houses and small businesses.

They have further initiated various educational institutions to be a part of this drive. The students are encouraged to carry waste plastics from their homes and neighborhoods to school on Wednesdays, which will then be collected by the conservancy staff of that area.

This initiative in the process of enabling a crucial innovative will also help promotes healthier household habits.

Lets remember… Wednesdays are plastic collection days!

Lowering the carbon foot-print of Cement!

Here is another interesting development from cement manufacturers in Karnataka.  Traditional cement manufacturing involves the process of converting limestone into clinker in a blast furnace.  Clinker makes up 95% of cement.  The article quotes that "in order to produce 1 tonne of clinker  1.5 tonnes of  limestones is needed and in the process 0.5 tonnes of CO2 is released [in the atmosphere]".

Green cement replaces 50% of clinker with slag, a waste product from steel blast furnace.  Apart from reducing CO2 emissions by half, green cement also has the advantage of being much more resistnt than traditional cement, especially along coastal environments!  It is also cleaner for the environment in that the slag production from steel plants can be recycled as well as limestone resources preserved.

Biodegradable plastic bin bags now in India!

This is one product I have been wanting to blog about for a while now.  Yesterday I ventured back to my local Nilgiris store where I originally discovered it.... and what a discovery!  Nevertheless, these are hard to come by, I had to remove half the shelf's content to find it.  In an era where more and more people are saying "No to plastics!" this product is a welcome sustainable alternative!

These are biodegradable plastic bags from Indian bin bag manufacturer Plastobag from Bangalore (email: plastobag at gmail.com).  They even have a facebook page.  This is one product I strongly recommend, and I am going to bury one of their bags in a spare flower pot on my terrace to see if it really decomposes and after which I will plant a seed to see if plants are affected. 

The bags come in a handy roll with perforated separation to easily detach them, as well as the very handy tie tapes (in white in the photo below) which allows the maid to securely seal the bag and prevent them from being sniffed out by stray dogs and cats and their contents spilled out in the street!

I use these bags to line my rubbish bin where I segregate food waste from plastic, paper and other non-recyclable waste.  I know that in the end it all gets mixed again in the dumper truck, but at least my bio bag will decompose in the land fill and after a few years, only the recyclable-waste will remain, or at least that is the theory!  I have tried, without success so far, to get my local bin explorer who sorts out the plastics and other recyclable waste from the street dump, to accept my dry waste, as I figure it would be a lot more pleasant and efficient for him to sort out what he can resell from a bin that does not smell of decomposing waste.  However, last I approached him he was very happy to accept, maybe because someone paid attention to him (?), but he has not made it into a habit to come back for more.  It would be great if we could organise such people to collect pre-sorted waste from local houses and flat.  They render such a great service to the neighbourhood and the environment but often with such lack of respect from the community.  allowing them to sort through dry waste would also give them back some humanity.  Let's see if a little aspiration, a prayer to Hanuman, and some dedication can