Composting & Organic Gardening Workshop At Pune
India generates 3 millions truckloads of waste per day coming from over 500 cities each. Out of which 60% is biodegradable (veg waste, peels). The remaining 40% is non degradable (plastic, rubber). This can be segregated at the source level because, in the later stages, it’s nearly impossible to segregate wet and dry wastes. All of it ultimately ends up in the landfills. These landfills are anaerobic and hence cannot decompose. They end up rotting and producing greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming.
Green Citizens project introduced by Earth5R is an innovative project which aims at making India zero waste by training citizens in Composting & Organic Gardening via hands-on workshop. As a part of this, the team of Earth5R visit colleges, buildings, societies, companies and schools. They not only encourage citizens to manage and segregate their waste but also give live demonstrations through workshops on how their houses or offices can be zero waste.
After hearing about the work done by Earth5R’s Green Citizens project, Kirti Kale, (a resident of Marvel society, Hadapsar, Pune) along with her society team, approached Earth5R to introduce workshops in their premises.
Hence on 23rd May, the Pune Earth5R team including Shriyam Jalan, Mansi Deshpande, Sonam Sengar and Saurabh Gupta visited the society and conducted interactive workshops on waste segregation, waste management and organic gardening. The team went door to door inviting many families to attend the workshop. Within half an hour, collectively fifty families gathered in the society’s clubhouse for this workshop.
The workshop began by demonstrating how segregation of waste takes place. Some of the families brought their kitchen waste and the team demonstrated how to segregate the plastic from the leftovers or biodegradable waste. The use of a small compost tumbler was explained.
They were told how the biodegradable waste could be broken down into smaller parts and combined with a little bit of compost and soil in order to begin producing compost at home using the kitchen waste. The participation from the families was commendable. The children also enjoyed the whole concept of organic farming.
The Earth5R team incentivized the composting process by showing the society how they can exactly make use of this compost.
The team showed how the families could practice organic gardening using coconut husk, how much of water or soil is to be added, how to plant the seeds and other details which make a big difference during organic farming.
Saurabh Gupta from Earth5R later took a small session on how the pesticides now a days have contributed to a lot of health hazards like cancer. Organic gardening is the first step towards leading a sustainable and healthy life.
Earth5R team highlighted the importance of Solar Energy and Rainwater harvesting
The Earth5R team also visited the compost pit of the society. It was found that the pit was not in a good position as most of the garbage included left overs were covered in plastic. The absence of soil, moisture, dryness and fibres led to anaerobic digestion. The team guided them on how they can fix these issues and start composting in an efficient manner.
After this workshop, the team went to one of the residents’ home where there was a huge green patch which seemed to be unproductive. The team identified that this could be used for organic farming. The team worked with the family in order to improve the plantation in their home. The Earth5R team and the society have taken a pledge to make the Marvel society a green and sustainable society. They promised to implement many more methods towards sustainability like solar panels and rainwater harvesting.
The Earth5R team also guided the citizens on the benefits of Rainwater Harvesting and Solar Energy. The citizens were really keen to know how their buildings can save a huge amount of water by harvesting the rain and recycling it and how they could save a lot on electricity expenses from the common area and save thousands of tree.
Members from Marvilla society who participated included Kirti Kale, Harshad Kale, Rhishiraj Pardeshi, Deepti Pardeshi, Swamini Dandekar, Parimal Dandekar, Rohini Thakur, Siddharth Thakur, Vrushali Vikhankar, Rahul Vikhankar, Ashish Chavan, Minsk Agase, Minal Agashe, Pritee Kolhe, Atul Kolhe
-Reported edited by Sumana K