This start-up is making home composting a habit in India5 min read

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On average, an Indian family of four produces 2.2 kgs of waste every day. The 2020 census data showed that there are 248.8 million households in India. So, that’s a lot of garbage! And 60% of that waste is organic (Remember, Let’s Talk Trash?). How about taking care of it at home, itself?

Daily Dump, India’s first home-based composter of urban spaces created by Bengaluru-based industrial designer Poonam Bir Kasturi, is making this possibility a reality in 60,000 homes across India, Dubai, US, and Australia. The start-up creates easy-to-use composters to make the process of home composting easier revolutionising waste management.

What is composting?
Composting is the process of decomposing organic waste in the presence of air. The resultant material, compost, functions as extremely fertile manure.

The Beginning…

Daily Dump’s products and services offer path-breaking solutions for waste management at the level of homes, offices, and public spaces, without the intervention of government agencies.

Kasturi grew up in Bengaluru , and as the city kept growing, she realised that waste was going to be a big problem. She was always interested in exploring design as a potent tool for change. This is how Daily Dump was born in 2006, after two focussed years of research on the products and the processes. She sold her first composter at the cost of INR 150 at a time when composting was not even considered.

How does it work?

These composters are made by potter communities from Madurai in Tamil Nadu, Madanapalle in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Dhubri in Assam. Their efforts with the potter communities in Andhra Pradesh led to the State Government opening a common soil processing plant.

One of the highest selling products is a tall cylindrical composter made out of terracota, Kambha. This composter takes pressure off public agencies managing waste, and also saves the planet!

The composter is divided into three compartments. The composter has holes on its surface to allow the movement of air. The waste needs to be put into the composter, and covered with a remix powder, prepared by Daily Dump. That is all that is needed from the user. Chemistry does the rest!

The fear of odour has often come in the way of composting but Daily Dump has overcome this possibility by allowing enough air to move into the composter through holes on its surface. The remix powder is also light and airy allowing gaps to develop in the compost pile, keeping odour at bay.

The compost thus created can be used in one’s own garden or a neighbourhood park to help grow plants.

The efforts of Daily Dump can reduce daily garbage output by 80%!

The Range…

Apart from the Kambha, Daily Dump also offers Aaga, India’s first community composter that does not use electricity.

The organisation is committed to safe waste management as is evident in their nuanced products like Ooze Stopper, that is a space to store used batteries, and Saviour Bags that are recycled paper bags for dustbin linings. It also offers books, posters, awareness materials, and separation products to help make waste management a movement.

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Daily Dump is not just about providing a service but also about altering a mindset. Waste management is a household activity and the responsibility of each and every individual. Bringing the compost home is one step towards leading an environmentally aware choice. It has already saved 50,000 kilograms of waste daily. You can add to that number by procuring these wonderful products , here.

Sourced from Daily Dump, Your Story, and The Better India
Image courtesy Your Story

(The Buzz is a fortnightly column that explores bright ideas that became reality)