Vermigold International, her company, is a Rs 25 lakh a year business that has graduated to large projects.She has launched a project jointly with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCM) where MCM has leased her 2,400 sq.m of land for free, and has promised to provide 35 tonnes of vegetable and flower waste daily from the Dadar market. The unit cost Rs 10 lakh, and MCM gave an interest-free mobilisation advance of Rs 5 lakh (to be repaid in 10 instalments over 28 months, with an 18-month moratorium). The other Rs 5 lakh came from Saptarshi.

The unit has a monthly capacity of 100 tonnes; compost will be retailed at Rs 15 a kg. Saptarshi will pay MCM Rs 25,000 a month or 10 per cent of profits, whichever is higher.

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.

One of WaterAid’s projects in India has found a novel approach to tackle this dilemma and generate income. Their solution lies with worms.

The community living in the Kalmanthai slum in Tiruchirapalli has worked hard to rehabilitate and build communal sanitation blocks for men, women and children.

They have also established water supply projects and credit schemes which they manage themselves.

The slum is adjacent to a wholesale banana market where truckloads of fruit, leaves and stems arrive every day. Discarded produce litters the area. With no proper disposal systems the community groups realised they would have to manage this and the other waste in the slum to ensure they had a clean environment to live in. WaterAid’s partner, Gramalaya, suggested the community ran a pilot vermiculture project.

Vermiculture uses worms in a controlled environment to do what they are best at- converting organic waste into nutrient-rich compost in nature’s way of recycling.

Members of the community groups underwent training and initiated a small-scale trial project investing Rs.2,200 (£29) they had raised from the sanitation blocks. They bought 4,000 red worms, Eisenia foetida, commonly known as the red wiggler or manure worm, which are best suited to composting.

Encouraged by the initial results the community then set up a larger scheme. An area of land by the communal toilet blocks was set aside with a small shed and composting arrangements for the worms.

Now in every 45 day cycle, for an investment of Rs.500, nearly one tonne of compost is produced. The compost is packed in bags and sold for Rs.5 per kilogramme, making nearly Rs.3000 per cycle.

The success has spread to other slum communities and individual households, which are now also carrying out vermiculture projects. The original project now even breeds and sells worms to those wishing to follow its example. But vermiculture isn’t only a solution in urban areas; another of WaterAid’s partners in India, REEDS, is now implementing a large-scale vermiculture project with rural farming communities in Andra Pradesh.

This scheme shows a highly successful and profitable way of waste disposal that provides communities with employment and funds to carry out their own future development work. As the members of the community proudly claim the scheme is ‘generating wealth from waste’.

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.

As of estimates made in 2002, India had more than 3000 tanneries with a total capacity of 700000 tonnes of hides and skins per year. The annual income from leather trade in India was about Rs 20000 crores. More than 90% of the tanneries were small or medium with a processing capacity of less then 2 to 3 tonnes of hides/skins per day. Most of the tanneries are located near river banks. The highest concentration of tanneries in India is on the banks of Ganga river (Kanpur, Unnao) in North India and the Palar river system in Tamilnadu.

Leather Production Technology and Pollution:

An animal skin consists of about 61% water, 34% fibrous proteins, 1% globular proteins, 2% lipids, 1% natural salts and some other ingredients including pigments. Out of three layers, the epidermis, dermis and the hypodermis it is the dermis which is later transformed into leather. The epidermis primarily composed of keratin has hair which is removed and the hypodermis has flesh and blood vessels which is also removed. In leather processing, the basic operations revolve round cleaning the skin of unwanted inter fibrillary material through a set of pre-tanning operations in the Beam House, processing the leather permanently by means of tanning and adding aesthetic value during the post tanning process. The starting material in most cases is raw hide or skin which has been preserved temporarily by the addition of common salt.

1. The Beam House process involves the removal of salt, dirt and hair  in the following processes:

(a)   Desalting and Soaking the hides to remove salt and other foreign material such as dirt and also to remove the moisture content.  This process uses a large amount of water about 20 m³ per ton of hide and generates conspicuous pollution. Soaking generates about 6-9 m³ per ton of effluents with a BOD from 1100 to 2500 mg/l, a COD of 3000-6000 mg/L, very high total solids and suspended solids, 15000 to 30000 mg/l of chlorides and 800-1500 mg/l of sulphates.

(b)   Unhairing and Liming – The process yields one of the most polluting effluent streams from tanneries. Liming opens up the collagen structure by removing interstitial material, fleshing removes excess tissue from the interior of the hide.  Unhairing is done by treating soaked hides in a bath containing sodium sulphide / Hydrogen sulphide and lime. About 3 to 5 m³ of effluent per tonne of hide/skin is expected to be discharged with a high pH of 10.0 to 12.8, a BOD of 5000 to 10000 mg/l and COD of 10000 – 25000 mg/l. The concentration of sulphides ranges from 200 to 500 mg/l, the total solids (24000 to 48000 mg/l) and sulphates (600-1200 mg/L) are also high.

(c)    Deliming and bating: A bath of ammonium salts and proteolytic enzymes is used to process the pelt. About 1.5 m³ of effluents are generated in the process at a pH of 7 to 9. The pollutants from the process include Calcium salts, Sulphide residues (30 to 60 mg/l), degraded proteins, residual proteolytic enzymatic agents, Chloride (1000 to 2000 mg/l), Sulphates (2000 to 4000 mg/l), BOD (1000 – 3000 mg/l) and COD (2500 to 7000 mg/l). Nitrogen based deliming agents are considered a long term environmental threat because of their impact on soil NOx values.

Sulphates are an important content of pretanning waste waters. They readily get reduced to sulphide under anaerobic conditions in waste water treatment plants like anaerobic lagoons, contact filters or up flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactors. A build up of sulphides makes the biomethanation of organic materials less effective apart from adding to the COD load. Ammonia is also given off as an air pollutant in the process.

Carbon Activation
Activated carbon is made from any substance with a high carbon content, and activation refers to the development of the property of adsorption. Activated carbon is important in purification processes, in which molecules of various contaminants are concentrated on and adhere to the solid surface of the carbon. Activated carbon is generally nonpolar, and because of this it adsorbs other nonpolar, mainly organic, substances. Extensive porosity (pore volume) and large available internal surface area of the pores are responsible for adsorption.

Any inexpensive material with a high carbon content and a low inorganic content can be used as potential
raw material in producing activated carbons. The most often used raw materials for manufacturing activated carbons include wood, peat, bituminous coal, lignite, coconut shell, nutshells, lignin, and others.
Activated carbons can be manufactured by either a physical or a chemical activation process. The physical activation process generally is used to manufacture activated carbon in a two-step activation process—the carbonization of raw materials in the absence of O2 followed by the activation of carbonized products. Steam and carbon dioxide (CO2) are the activating reagents most commonly used in physical activation, significantly influencing the porosity of the activated carbons.  The chemical activation process is used to manufacture activated carbons usually in a single step, using zinc chloride, phosphoric acid, and potassium hydroxide as the activating reagents.The carbonaceous materials are converted into activated carbons depending upon the nature of the raw materials, the nature of the activating reagent, and the conditions of the activation process.Furthermore, activated carbon can be impregnated with sulfur (S), chloride, or iodine to increase its adsorptive capacity, making the impregnated activated carbon much more effective than un-impregnated activated carbon for removing gaseous mercury (Hg) from flue gases at low temperatures.

Utility of Activated Carbon
Waste Treatment
Activated carbon may be used to treat a number of contaminants in liquid wastes including Non-biodegradable organic compounds (COD), Adsorbable Organic Halogens (AOX), Toxicity ,Colour compounds and dyestuffs ,Inhibitory compounds for biological treatment systems ,Aromatic compound including phenol and bis-phenol A (BPA),Chlorinated/halogenated organic compounds ,Pesticides and a host of toxic substances.

Air Pollution Control
In the context of air pollution control, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from air and other gases can be removed to below the detection limit.Noxious compounds such as hydrogen sulphide and mercaptans are readily trapped through adsorption and help to prevent odours. Incinerators dealing with Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), hazardous industrial waste, medical waste, sewerage sludge and crematoria results in the formation of a flue gas containing a range of pollutants. Dioxins and heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium are not normally removed to low enough concentrations by conventional treatment.
A range of industrial inorganic compounds and materials can be removed from gas streams, before venting to the atmosphere, using specialised impregnated or catalytic (Centaur) carbons.

In the Food and Beverage Industry
Activated carbons can be used in the Food and Beverage industry to decolourise,dechlorinate,deozonate,decaffeinate,debitter,deodorise a number of food products.

In the Pharmaceutical Industry
In the Pharmaceutical industry activated carbons are used to provide superior removal of colour compounds, odour compounds, proteins and other contaminants that could be present in the raw materials or that form during production.

As a Catalyst
With its large surface area, purity and relative hardness, activated carbon is an ideal carrier for catalytic metals or  a catalyst by itself.Activated carbons  have been successfully used as a catalyst in the manufacture of dry cell batteries, production of biodegradable herbicides like cyanuric chloride glyphosate, mercaptan removal in petroleum distillates and in the production and destruction of phosgene.

In the production of natural gas
Activated carbons have also been used for removal of mercury from natural gas for the production of L.N.G. , the removal of mercury from liquid hydrocarbons and  the removal of mercaptans/thiols , hydrogen sulphide and amine solutions  from natural gas and natural gas scrubbing.

In the brewing industry
Industrial uses of activated carbon also include its use for the purification of  hydrocarbon contaminated Carbon Dioxide generated from the conversion of sugars to alcohol and its reuse for carbonation in the brewing Industry  thereby eliminating the need from purchasing Carbon Dioxide from outside sources.

For the storage of gases
It can also be used to remove trace lubrication oils from waste streams and in fruit storage for gas storage(under pressurised condition the extensively developed carbon porosity provides for greatly enhanced volume storage of either a pure gas, such as carbon dioxide or nitrogen, or a gas mixture such as air) and delivery and also in applications that provide alternatives to greenhouse gas emissions.

In the Caustic soda Industry
Caustic Soda is used extensively in, and is also a by-product from, the chloralkali industry. Mercury cells are used for production of chlorine, hydrogen, and sodium (in a few plants potassium) hydroxides by electrolysis of a brine solution, and this can cause contamination.  Steam activated and impregnated carbons  are proven for this application.

For the purification of Electroplating Chemicals
Electroplating chemicals that become contaminated with organics and metal finishing residues can be purified by the use of steam activated carbon and the chemicals can be recycled for reuse.Chromium can be recovered from electroplating solutions.

In Gold recovery applications
Coconut shell based granular activated carbons are used in gold recovery applications employing the Carbon in Leach (CIL) or Carbon in Pulp (CIP) processes.

In Process Water treatment
In process water treatment, activated carbons are used to remove tastes and odors ,disinfection byproducts like chloramines, free and combined chlorine,trihalomethanes and halocarbons, for pH and alkalinity control,condensate recovery and treatment systems in steam generating operations,personal and collective protective masks against toxic gases includind Industrial and military respirators.

Other Applications
Other applications include within air filtration systems in archives and museums,ozone management in ponds and aquaria,treatment of swimming pool water for removal of organic matter, chloroform ,ozone,chloramine and other bonded chlorine and in cigarette filters,filters for treating cabin air in automobiles.

Recycling of spent activated carbon
Once granular carbon is saturated or the treatment objective is reached, it can be recycled, by thermal reactivation, for reuse. Reactivation involves treating the spent carbon in a high temperature reactivation furnace to over 800°C. During this treatment process, the undesirable organics on the carbon are thermally destroyed. Recycling by thermal reactivation is a highly skilled process, to ensure that spent carbon is returned to a reusable quality.  Recycling activated carbon by thermal reactivation meets the environmental need to minimise waste, reducing CO2 emissions and limiting the use of the world’s resources.

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.