Her organic business venture Daily Dump offers different types of composters that convert the waste generated in one’s  kitchen into compost. If the customers do not require the compost, it can be sold back to Daily Dump.

What began as a small venture with family members and potters, three years ago, Daily dump is set to treble its turnover to Rs 36,00,000 (Rs 3.6 million) this year. Today, the company has about 4,500 dedicated customers in Bangalore who use the profitable composters.

The response has been encouraging and the company has steadily grown over the past 3 years. In the first year, Daily Dump made a turnover of Rs 200,000, which increased to 12,00,000 (Rs 1.2 million) last year.

Poonam says home waste generated in one’s kitchen is 50-70 per cent organic, but urban India has still not found an effective way to dispose this waste, which can actually be churned back into the system by converting it into useful organic manure.

“Keeping this waste off the streets will be the biggest challenge that civic authorities across every city will face. If we can convert this into compost, it can reduce the mess on the streets by 60 per cent, that’s a big impact,” Poonam points out.

The Daily Dump design is available to anyone who is interested, the designs are protected by a creative commons license and the cloning approach allows anyone to use these designs. “I plan to support every person who is brave enough to clone this in every possible manner,” says Poonam.

Poonam Kasturi shares her experiences of  ‘a great ride, tough but very fulfilling’ of converting household waste into wealth and how her products can make a far reaching impact in a country like India.

The U.P. Pollution Control Board has identified 469 tannery industries in the state out of which 404 tanneries are treated in Kanpur.

1. Details of effluent treatment system in 404 tanneries installed at Kanpur is as follows:
2. Based on vegetable tanning system                                                          -           198
   1. I.            Primary effluent treatment system installed           -           102
   2. II.            Based on drying system                                                  -            24
   3. III.            Closed due to their own reasons                                -           48
   4. IV.            Closed by the orders of the Honorable Courts/Board            -           24
   5. Based on Chrome Tanning System                                               -           206
      1. I.            Having Chrome Recovery Unit/Member of Common     -           166

Chrome Recovery Unit/Primary

Effluent System installed.

1. II.            Closed due to their own reasons                                                   -           13
2. III.            Closed by the orders of the Honorable Courts/Board       -           27

A Common Chrome recovery unit has been established at Jajmau, Kanpur for small tannery industries by the Municipal Corporation financed by The Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India. Total 76 tanning industries are members of Common Chrome Recovery Plant and 90 chrome tanning units have installed their own chrome recovery units within their premises. Currently the total capacity of the common plant is not being utilized because of lack of drum dryer. As per the information form the Municipal Commissioner, finance is being sought from the Government of India for installing the Drum Dryer.

9 MLD industrial wastes is being generated from the tannery industries at Jajmau, which is put into the common conveyance system after primary treatment (installed in the premises of the individual industries) this combines with 27 MLD municipal waste water and is treated in a Combined Effluent Treatment Plant. The treated effluents have generally been observed to be beyond the prescribed norms. This is mainly because of week operation and maintenance management and the need for upgradation.

1. In addition to Kanpur, a total of 65 Tanneries are located in other districts as follows:

a.   Kanpur Dehat                                  -                       02

b.   Meerut                                               -                       04

c.   Muzaffer Nagar                               -                       01

d.   Mathura                                            -                       02

e.   Agra                                                    -                       03

f.    Gautambudh Nagar                      -                      04

g.   Ghaziabad                                        -                       03

h.   Barabanki                                         -                       05

i.    Unnao                                                -                       41

Out of these 26 industries are closed. The balance 39 tanneries have their own Pollution Control Systems or are joined to the 02 combined plants at Banthar Unnao and Unnao UPSIDC Site II.

Common Waste Management Industries

The Banthar Industrial Pollution Control Company

This Leather Technology Park set up on 286.16 acres at Banthar, Unnao, U.P. India on NH 25, 20 km from Kanpur and 9 kms from Unnao is an initiative of the government of U.P. to provide an integrated leather processing complex which includes a common effluent treatment plant and a common hazardous waste disposal facility. Based on an earlier model also working at Unnao, the constituent units of the region have come together and formed a separate company, registered under the companies act and with an objective to set up and operate the CETP and waste disposal facility. The Banthar Industrial Pollution Control Company looks after the installation, operation and maintenance of the 4.5 mld capacity CETP set up in an area of 12 acres and the common hazardous waste management facility set up in an area of 18 acres within the complex. Each constituent unit is expected to install an individual Chrome Recovery Unit and primary effluent treatment plant to ensure that primary standards prescribed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India are complied with. The CETP was commissioned in October 2004 with a project cost of Rs. 6.00 with a promoters contribution of Rs 2.99 crores and a matching grant of Rs. 2.99 crores from CIB/ASIDE. The treated effluents from the CETP are discharged (through the UPSIDC drainage) finally into the City Jail drain which ultimately meets the river Ganga after a distance of 30 kms. The CETP is based on the Activated sludge process with a two stage aeration system and a polishing tertiary system.

Forty two tanning and allied industries constitute the member units. Presently (2008) 12 units were operating with a discharge of 1886 KLD effluent to the CETP

The unit operations consist of a Barscreen, grit chamber, equalization tank, flash mixer (lime alum), clarifloccnlator, 1^st stage Aeration tank, with a low speed 25 HP fixed surface aerators, 2^nd stage aeration tank with 10 low speed 15 HP fixed surface aerators, 1^st stage peripherally driven biological clarifier with central shell, 2^nd stage peripherally driven biological clarifier with central shell and a tertiary clarifier with dosing arrangements along with sludge drying beds. The treated effluents from the CETP have been able to achieve a pH of 7.5 (5.5 -9.0), suspended solids 98 mg/l (100 mg/l), BOD of 22.00 mg/l (30 mg/l), COD of 88 mg/l (250.00 mg/l) and a total chromium of 1.8 (2.0 mg/l). (The prescribed standards are mentioned in parenthesis.) Consents under section 25/26 of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974 have been granted to the CETP from 2005 through 2008. The cost of treatment works out to be Rs. 9.25/KL based on water consumed by the constituent tannery.

Joint effort have also been made for safe disposal of hazardous sludge generated not only from tanneries situated at Banthar but also from other industrial areas in Unnao. The secured landfill site has also been developed at Banthar, properly lined and with leachate collection and disposal facility. This is expected to cater to 3 to 5 years of sludge generation from all leather and allied industries at Unnao site I, II and III and Banthar. Industries have now formed a separate registered company by the name of “Industrial Infrastructure services (India) Ltd “. The project proposals submitted by this company for the development of a TSDF on 33 acres of land at CETP Banthar at a cost of Rs. 17 crores and cleared by the government of India shall benefit about 130 industries at Unnao. The TSDF has been commissioned w.e.f. October 2008.

The Unnao Tanneries Pollution Control Company:

Commissioned in 1995, this combined effluent treatment plant managed by the Unnao Tanneries Pollution Control Company treats 2.15 MLD effluents from 21 member industries (Tanning and Allied). The company was constituted as a sequel to the World Bank assisted ‘Industrial Pollution Control Project’ which envisaged the setting up of CETPs with 20% promoter’s contribution,25% subsidy from state government (Through the Department of Environment Budget), 25% Subsidy from Central Government and 30% soft loan from World Bank through I.D.B.I.. The CETP works are situated at A-7, Site-2, UPSIDC Industrial Area, Unnai, U.P., India and for the last about 14 years have served as a model for successful cooperative management of waste.

The effluent generated by member units is first subject to primary treatment in the generating industry. This necessarily consists of a Bar Green, Equalization Tank, Chemical dosing tank, settling tank, and sludge drying beds, The primary effluents are then transferred through underground conveyance system to the CETP for treatment. The Chrome tanning units separately treat and recover the basic chrome sulphate from spent chrome Liquor. This is reused in the tanning process.

At the CETP the primary treated effluents are treated by a two stage aerobic activated sludge process and treated effluent with a pH of 7.3 to 7.5, Suspended Solids of 60 to 90 mg/l , BOD of 20 to 29 mg/l, COD of 200 to 240 mg/l and very low quantities of chromium III (0.32 to BDC) discharged into the Loni drain which generally dries out on land but which meet the river Ganga at a distance of about 146 kms during the rainy season. The CETP consist of a Bar Screen Chamber, 2 Nos equalization/Holding Tanks with 12 hours detention, 1 No. clarifloccnlation tank, a primary aeration tank with a hydrometric retention  time of 24 hours, 4 aerators of 24 HP capacity each and an operating cycle of 4 days. This is followed by the 1^st stage secondary clarifier with a detention time of 3 hours. The second stage aeration tank also has 4 aerators of 20 HP, a detention time of 24 hours and operating cycle of 17 to 20 days and is followed by a 2.5 hours detention time 2^nd stage secondary clarifiers. The ETP sludges are dried in 28 sludge drying beds.

Experimenting for safety,  samples of treated hospital waste and garden soil were injected with HIV-positive and Hepatitis B-positive blood and some salmonella cultures. The results revealed no trace of virus from the treated samples.

Over the years, 400 kg of manure has been taken from the from the clinic to the 22-acre farm where they grow over 15,000 fruit trees, mostly chickoo and mango.  Chemical fertilisers and insecticides would have cost around Rs 20,000 a year. Considerable savings indeed, and from a most unlikely source.

The science he uses is very simple. The top and bottom of a drum are cut off, then 12 holes of 8-10 cm diameter are cut into the body at varying heights. It is then filled with sugarcane bagasse to a height of 5 cm. Kitchen waste is dumped into the drum every day, till the pile reaches the first hole. At this point, a sapling or seed is placed in the hole.The process is continued till the drum is full. The plants grow out of the holes. It involves minimal labour and time, and needs watering only twice a week.

“City farming works wonders for the budget. I save Rs 18,000 a year on vegetables,” he says. Over 100 Mumbai families have emulated his example.

Gupta’s father started off in the late 1960s by supplying hair to exporters, then set up his own unit in Eluru in Andhra Pradesh a decade later. His company has since bagged export awards for 14 years.

Apart from barber cuttings and cut hair from temples( Tirupati temple alone sells a staggering Rs 20 crore worth annually), a large portion of it comes from households across India, collected by rag-pickers and garbage collectors, to Eluru.

Here it is sorted into lengths and colours, cleaned, washed and dried, and then shipped out in containers. Each month, 30-35 tonnes of hair is exported to 32 countries. China is the biggest buyer.

The students of National Model School in Peelamedu, G.R. Damodaran School on Avanashi Road and Elgi Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Vellalore have set up bio-compost pits on the school premises to decompose wastes into organic manure. Two baskets are kept at various points inside the campus – one for non-biodegradable wastes such as chocolate wrappers, pen caps and plastic bags and another for biodegradable wastes that include food leftovers, waste papers, dry leaves, dry flowers and twigs.

Coordinator of Siruthuli A.C. Prabhu says the process is simple. “With the help of students, a six ft length, four ft breadth and one ft deep pit is dug out and waste from trees inside the school campus and vegetable wastes are dumped into it and covered by a layer of soil. Water and diluted Effective Microbes (EM) solution are added and the contents are allowed to decay. After 45 days, the waste is decomposed into manure and used for the afforestation programme of the school,” he adds.

The students visit neighbouring areas to spread awareness on the need to have bio-compost pits. They  give a demonstration on the method to be followed beginning with segregation of waste at source.

The amount of soil available in potted plants is sufficient for a bio-compost pit. A litre of EM solution concentrate comes at Rs. 240 and is available at outlets selling agro-based products. It can be diluted with 100 litres of water and sprayed on the contents on alternate days.