Organic waste from Varkala to beautify Kochi

Thiruvananthapuram: Organic waste from Varkala is about to be used to prepare garden beds in Kochi. This week, Varkala Municipality has inked an agreement with Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) to transport partially composted waste piled up at a godown at Kanwashramam in Varkala. It will be used to fill the medians between metro pillars.

Varkala Municipality has set aside Rs 15 lakh for the project. Chairperson Bindu Haridas said that they are waiting for KMRL to confirm the date of transportation. 

"Once the waste in the godown is cleared, the municipality plans to focus on setting up source-level waste management at households as well as hotels and restaurants in Varkala. If hotels don't have enough space, we will encourage them to start biogas plants," she says.

The waste mound in the 4,000-sq-ft godown was collected from Varkala model aerobic bins over the last three or four years. It is now 3 or 4 m high. The height should be within 1 m for aerobic composting to be effective, according to Manoj C. N., co-founder, Pelican Biotech and Chemical Labs.

So, the flat space of the median will help accelerate the rate of composting. Moreover, it will be carpeted with a layer of soil-less planting media, on which a lawn will be planted, overnight.

The planting media which consists of microbes, fibre and nutrients were developed by Pelican, which offers technical support to KMRL. 

"Usually we need to mix soil with compost mixture, because of the higher value of electrical conductivity. In this case, we can plant directly on the compost as the planting media has lower electrical conductivity," says Mr Manoj. 

"Since there are environmental conflicts connected with soil excavation from river beds, the soil-less media will be useful. We have applied for a patent for the utilisation of dump yard waste in median gardening."