A case for community composting
The other day when my gardener and I were repotting plants, he crumbled some mud in his hands and commented, “This is the richest soil I’ve worked with!” His other employers spent a lot of money buying chemical fertilizers and properly-cured, organic cow manure. “But nothing compares to this home-made compost,” he said, looking into our compost bins, where citrus and tomato seeds were germinating even as our kitchen waste was decomposing into nutrient-rich soil. The conversation gave rise to a new line of thought. I’d bought home a composting system to reduce the waste generated in my household. For the gardener on the other hand, the bonus was not the reduction of waste, but the quality of soil created. “Why don’t you,” I suggested, “convince your other employers to compost their kitchen waste as well?” I had the misguided notion that perhaps the new skill he’d learned here could help him make some extra money and also reduce the load on the city’s festering landfills — a winwin for all concerned. Instead, his answer helped me understand that the way forward for waste management rests with the community, not the individual household.
Becoming a home composting evangelist was a terrible idea, he declared, and would only result in failure. If he suggested all his employers composted their kitchen waste, he explained, the chances that most of them would refuse to do so were very high. First, he said, most of them lived in apartments and did not have the space for composting. “Second, not only would they object to the smell of decomposing waste, they’d definitely be very bugged when the compost attracted flies and other insects!” he said. “Third, most people do not understand the very ABC of composting and don’t think it’s their responsibility to do it in the first place!” His final, and biggest objection was this: “Unlike you, most people do not like to get their hands dirty if they can get someone else to do the job,” he said. Even if he did convince one of his employers to do it, the task of composting would consequently fall on him, without him being paid extra for the increased labour. “I work alternate days in nine different places,” he said. “Each employer pays me between ~1,000-1,500 a month.” He said that instead of taking on any unpaid work, he’d be happy to see his employers’ kitchen waste go into a dump.
His answer left me depressed. I told him about the festering landfill in Bhalaswa (in northwest Delhi) that he lived close to. It emitted methane fumes, mainly because unsegregated waste was dumped into it, which were a recurring fire hazard. The landfill leached toxins into the ground, leaving a lasting negative impact. To me, the way forward for effective urban waste management simply had to include composting. The gardener said, “But given that most people know little about composting or have the luxury of spending extra to buy home composters, the larger solution possibly doesn’t lie in doing it at home.” What did he think could be a way out, I asked? Composting waste, not at the level of the individual household, but at the level of the community, could be a more workable option: “People like me could collect kitchen waste from all the households in a neighborhood for a monthly fee, make compost in the local park and sell it,” he said thoughtfully.
He made a valid point. Sometimes the best solutions for development emanate from people rooted to the earth and living in a reality many of us only read about.