Fodder for her pets, manure for her garden

BENGALURU: Annapurna Kamath, a believer of zero waste management, has been meticulously segregating and composting waste for the last three years.

"We are a family of seven and our kitchen generates a considerable amount of waste every day. In my garden, I have two tall plastic drums with holes in them. One drum has a layer of dry leaf at the bottom, followed by kitchen waste, coco peat and biobricks. It fills up every two months and when the compost is ready and dry, I take it out," says this resident of Jakkur. "I use the same compost in the other drum but reduce the amount of coco peat, which works great. The rest of the compost goes into my garden for my vegetable patch, trees and plants," she adds.

Annapurna, an educationist, has dogs, rabbits, ducks and a small poultry on her one-acre property. "Some of the vegetable and fruit peels are fed to the rabbits, and the meat bones go to the dogs," she explains.


Annapurna, 43, has over 100 plants in her garden and has trees like gulmohar, jamun, mango and rose apple. "A huge amount of garden waste is generated every 15 days; I compost the same using the leaf-compost method. The dry leaves are placed in a small tank in a conical formation; slurry (including cowdung) is added to it and left for two-three months. Later, I use the mixture in the garden."

She has been trying to minimize dry waste as much as possible. Every two weeks, BBMP collects dry waste and takes it to the dry waste collection centre at Jakkur. Once a month, it collects sanitary waste. "We follow the two-binone-bag system; sanitary and medical waste are safely kept in the red bin," she explains.

This crusader has also been conducting regular workshops at Jakkur Lake on Sundays, where she helps clear all doubts related to segregating and composting. In July, Annapurna and other like-minded citizens will start a programme for schools and colleges on segregation and composting in and around Jakkur.