Dhanbad: Chas Municipality Corporation and a group of IIT(ISM) Dhanbad students have a novel Christmas gift to the people of Chas in Bokaro.
On Monday, Christmas day, the civic body will install nine 200-litre compost tumblers in as many residential areas of Chas. The tumblers that turn leftover food, vegetables and other stinking kitchen waste into productive compost through fermentation, have been designed by IIT(ISM) students' startup, Total Waste Solution (TOWASO).
Explaining the working of the contraption, IIT(ISM) MTech final year student and TOWASO founder Saurabh Suman said, "The kitchen waste collected from the apartments will be deposited in plastic composting tumblers.
Microbes will then be added as per requirement to accelerate the composting process."
Suman further explained, "The temperature inside the tumbler increases to around 60 °C as composting begins and energy is released due to fermentation. When the process is completed the temperature dips to normal," added Suman.
The entire process of converting a tumbler full of kitchen wastes to compost takes two to four weeks, he said.
Suman pointed out that the devices besides saving fuel, manpower and energy involved in disposing garbage to the dumping sites, will provide compost that can be used in gardens or for plants on balconies of the flats.
Chas deputy mayor Avinash Kumar said, "The composting tumblers are being installed at a minimal cost of around Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 and will help apartments to dispose garbage through their residential welfare association."
Suman said his team has also helped the civic body to design a landfill near the CMC office where the stink from the garbage was inconveniencing residents.
"We will install a perforated pipe in the new landfill near the CMC office to tap the methane gas generated after composting of garbage," said Suman.
Do you think more such college students should come up with novel ideas? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com