Monday, July 19, 2010

Composting Wet Household Waste for Green Surroundings !!

Among many sources of air pollution in the growing number of cities, an important non-traditional source is burning of household (and industrial) waste, though prohibited by law. There are regular incidences of waste burning (following road sweeping or in residential corridors where waste gets accumulated, but not collected in full, or even at the landfills). This is a common sight among the developing country cities and growing nuisance, in part due to an inefficient waste collection system.

A direct impact of this waste burning is emissions of particulate matter (most harmful of the criteria ambient pollutants), carbon monoxide, and toxins (depending on the mix of the waste). Given the uncertainty in knowing what and how much is burnt, it is very difficult to estimate these emissions and linked health impacts.

As part of the cartoon series @ urbanemissions.info, here is an edition on fool-proof methods to composting household wet waste. Download the full document as a pdf or view as images HERE











For more details on the methodologies, send an email. Also see a note from the daily dump, which was first featured on urbanemissions under "what a waste", discussing why we need to compost wet waste at home. This means less waste ending up on the curbside (and at the landfills), meaning less contribution to illegal burning, less air pollution, and more for the green gardens.



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