Compost in 24 hours ? Really ?

The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers notified the Policy on Promotion of City Compost in 2016 which makes it mandatory for all big offices, schools, hotels, housing complexes and municipal corporations in India to convert their wet waste into compost. Post this, companies promising 'compost in 24 hours' from organic waste, have been mushrooming all over the country. 

Such a technology does not find mention in the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 or in the Advisory on On-Site and Decentralized Composting of Municipal Organic Waste, issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in 2018. But companies selling such technology are still mushrooming. 

Bangalore

Is it a technical glitch or a fraud in broad daylight? wondered the residents of Salarpuria Symphony apartments in Bengaluru as a swanky machine gathered dust in the corner in 2019. The residents’ association had purchased the machine in 2017.

The seller had assured residents that the machine would churn out instant compost. But, says Sudhakar Shanmukham, a resident, “But all that the Rs 9 lakh machine produces is ash.”

While selling the machine, the company had also promised to buy back the output at Rs 1 per kg. But it stopped procuring after the initial purchase of 2,000 kilogrammes without giving any explanation.

In fact, the company officials did not respond to calls when the machine broke down and started billowing smoke, Shanmukham says.

Another society in Bangalore has a machine in working condition, but what it produces is not compost. “It is a kind of charred material. We have tried offering it to our landscape gardeners and farmers in nearby areas. But they say it’s of little use to them.” Small wonder, this company too too has stopped procuring the compost. They too, had an informal agreement with the residents’ association to buy back the compost at Re 1 per kg.

With mounds of “compost” piling up in the basement, the association plans to sell the machine at scrap price and install a traditional composting unit. D Randeep, commissioner of solid waste management at the Bangalore Municipal Corporation, says they are against instant composters. These generate ash instead of good quality compost, he says.

Here is a typical story of a 24-hour composting machine : At an apartment complex in Electronics City in Bangalore, the management had installed an automatic compost machine in 2016 at a cost of ₹10 lakh. Initially it worked well and the company even bought the ‘compost’ generated as promised. But soon, things started to change.

According to Sudhakar S., a resident of the apartment complex, smoke billowed out from the machine, which also began to consume a lot of electricity. The exhaust had to be finally turned towards a vacant plot adjacent to the building to avoid the smoke.

“The electricity bill went up to ₹30,000 a month. The compost generation was also not efficient. When we reached out to the company, they began dodging our calls and later blocked our numbers,” he said. Today, the machine is gathering dust.

In another instance in Padmanabhanagar in Bangalore, residents procured a compost-making machine. which assured ‘pre-compost’ by drying the wet waste fed into it. Within days, the machine broke down, said B.R. Moudgal (name changed on request), a resident of the apartment.

“Some of the key elements broke down and the machine kept burning stuff in it. Luckily, we had taken it only on a trial basis and we gave it back,” the resident added.

Gurgaon

In 2018, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (Gurgaon) (MCG) was trying to identify suitable composting technologies for housing complexes in the city. It was approached by several vendors dealing with instant composters. Before validating the technology, MCG wanted them to run pilot projects in various localities. However, their output was charred, clumpy and had a burnt or foul smell. Based on this, then MCG commissioner Yashpal Yadav refused to approve the empanelment of instant composters in the city. 

Pune

In 2014, Pune municipal corporation incurred an expense of Rs 15 crore to install 13 wet garbage composting plants, with a running cost of electricity bills worth Rs 1 lakh for a 3-tonne machine and Rs 2 lakh for a 5-tonne one. 

Organic waste can be shrunk up to 90% in a day by these composting machines but the 'compost' takes 30 days to mature. When these plants were conceived, there was no plan to store this compost for maturing. With no option, the municipal corporation now dumps the output of the machine in the vicinity of its plants, but is facing opposition from locals. 

The Pune municipal corporation admitted in an affidavit to the National Green Tribunal (NGT)  in 2017 that conversion of organic waste into compost in 24 hours is practically impossible, as it takes at least 30 days for the compost to be ready.

Pune based, Nagari Chetana Manch asked the NGT to shut down the solid waste processing plants in Pune, as the so called 24-hour micro organism-based compost is scientifically impossible. Tests had found that the so-called compost from these machines was hazardous to plants as well as human beings. 

Dr S A Ismail, soil biologist and ecologist said, “Composting is a natural biological process where the organic material undergoes gradual decomposition, and in a natural system takes a minimum of 30 days.”

Ismail added that the 24-hour machines do not produce compost. They only produce an end product of pulverised material. “It may be harmful to the soil if used as compost. This 24-hour process can at best reduce the volume so that it can be used for land-filling.” 

The Final Word ?

However, Abhishek Gupta, managing director of Reddo natura, defends the technology. “Our machines accelerate the process of composting which takes five to six months."

He is wrong ofcourse. Aerobic composting takes just 30 days except in winter, when it may take uptill 45 days.

In 2018, a citizens’ group, Solid Waste Management Round Table (SWMRT), analysed instant compost. “We compared the samples with compost prepared using traditional methods, such as vermicompost,” says Savita Hiremath.

Unlike traditional compost varieties, which are repositories of microbes, instant compost had zero microbial content, poor carbon-nitrogen ratio and was highly acidic. Acidic compost hinders absorption of nutrients by plants. 

“The vendors say the machines are organic waste converters. But in reality, they are just incinerators." 

What the 24 hour 'composting machines' do is an entirely different process from composting. These machines simply remove water and other volatile components out of the organic material thrown into it for composting.

“Many a times the waste that goes inside there is not entirely organic waste. Sometimes plastic waste get into it and thus, when the processing starts inside the machine, it releases toxic fumes which are very harmful for health,” Savita Hiremath clarifies. These toxic fumes that contains carcinogens like dioxins and furans get into the air we breathe. “What comes out of these machines is not compost, but burnt carbon.”

According to SWMRT, the automated composting machines are causing pollution at all levels. The burning of mixed waste, high power consumption, emission of toxic smoke and dumping of the same into the soil is triggering groundwater pollution. All of these are hazardous to the environment. Its report also suggests sustainable decomposing methods that are safe and natural as they rely only on microorganisms.

SWMRT has submitted a letter to the KSPCB, urging the body to issue an advisory stating that the machines are not composters but incinerators, thereby laying an embargo on the buying and selling of the machines. The letter also requests an official inquiry and a ban on these machines.

“The concept is very close to burning garbage,” a scientist pointed out. The best approach, experts and government officials say, is to compost the organic way, which takes about 30 days.

These are machines that were rejected in countries like Canada but are allowed to be used in our country.