Zero Waste Homes – the phrase has been garnering immense popularity in recent years. But how does one go about it? ADDA in association with Saahas Zero Waste hosted the Eight Episode of the Neighborhoods of Tomorrow – Interactive Webinar Series titled Zero Waste Residences Through Resource Recovery and Circular Economy. The Webinar was conducted by Ms. Wilma Rodrigues, CEO & Founder of Saahas Zero Waste and Ms. Shobha Raghavan, COO, Saahas Zero Waste.
Click here to download the Presentation.
The Takeaways
- Waste correctly disposed helps to bring it back to the source of its generation with value added to it, thereby promoting circular economy in the industry.
- Individual Residences and Communities must look into Composting as a daily habit to tackle the Waste problem that plagues the country.
- A decentralised waste management system can help recover upto 90-95% of the waste generated. This helps to turn waste into resources. Click here to check Saahas’s report.
Check out the pictorial representation of a small poll conducted in the Webinar. The Webinar saw 94% attendees pledging to commit to a Zero Waste lifestyle.
Q&A Session on Zero Waste Homes
Q: How does a Community facing space crunch practice in-situ waste management?
A: The best solution is to look at onsite composting for wet waste and the dry waste is handed over to a government empanelled vendor who have formal processes to segregate waste and focus on material recovery. The empanelled vendor should also provide services to pick up sanitary or biomedical waste and send them to a medical waste processing facility.C&D wastes too can be given to them for further processing in correct places.
Q: How to compost in an individual apartment unit?
A: Composting in an apartment unit is easy. Things you need :
1. A set of minimum two buckets with holes drilled in it for aeration.
2. Two tubs with the buckets to collect leachate. The leachate (if odourless and dark brown, can be used to water plants regularly).
3. Biodegradable or kitchen waste.
4. Browns in the form of shredded papers or cocopeat.
5. Microbes.
6. Rake.
Add your kitchen waste daily.Layer with your browns. Make sure your browns (carbon content) is more than your greens (nitrogen content) to avoid foul smell. Days you add cooked or rotten food to the waste, add a couple teaspoons of microbes to hasten the breakdown. For more details, click here.
Q. Why is Service Fee important for Waste Management vendors?
A: Without service fee, the waste collected has no economic value. This causes low grade waste to end up in water bodies and landfills since vendors do not have the monetary resource to send this waste to a proper cement kiln for further processing.
Q: How to use the generated biogas in an apartment community?
A: The biogas generated can be connected to a common kitchen in the community where very nominal cooking is done, for instance, beverages of the community staff.
Q: How to encourage the community to segregate waste?
A: Step 1 : Educate and raise awareness
Step 2 : Involve children to spread awareness
You can click here to check out Saahas’ Waste Management initiatives for apartments. Check out how they are helping the planet to heal.