Having come to know about a ‘green bucket’ initiative in Kerala that focuses on collecting food and other biodegradable waste separately, LIRNEasia partnered with the Kaduwela Pradesheeya Sabha do a similar ‘green bucket’ trial in 300 homes in the city. We chose Kaduwela because of three important conditions - political leadership, commitment of officers and the availability of facilities for composting.

Two important innovations distinguish the ‘Kaduwel’s Green Bucket’ initiative. First, green buckets were distributed together with a packet of bokashi. Second, the buckets were distributed with the support of community leaders selected by the political authority.

Bokashi is a yeast like mixture where good microbes are grown and nurtured in rice husk medium. Adding bokashi to food waste drives out other worms and other unpleasant intruders that make food waste stink. Bokashi microbes ferment the food in a way that does not release smelly by products and enable households to keep their food waste sanitarily until the waste is transferred to a compost bin or collected by the local authority.

In Sri Lanka politicians have bad reputation of politicizing the national, provincial or local official administrative processes and corrupting the administrative system. Saddled with a low perception perception of politicians we tend to forget the essential role played by politicians in connecting officials to the people. In particular, in development activities or activities that go beyond routine official work the leadership of the political authority is indispensable.  Will the community leaders selected by political authority be seen as the ‘other’ by households that did not vote with the politician in question or will these leaders be able to gain sufficient trust from all carry out their ‘awaring’ and monitoring activities effectively?

Yesterday we covered about 20 households to observe how the residents separate their waste and to ask how they feel about the program. We talked at length to about 10 residents. They were all enthusiastic about the Bokashi because one of their main concerns was the worm infestation and the accompanying unpleasantness of the food.  Two of the residents were also community leaders who were in charge of distributing the bins and ‘awaring’ and monitoring.  A comprehensive survey of all 300 households will be carried out before the end of January. Stay tuned!

Towards a simpler color code system for waste collection.

It is estimated that 60% or more of the waste generated in Sri Lanka consists of biodegradable waste that can be (a) composted to yield soil conditioners or fertilizer or (b) fermented to yield bio-gas. In South Asian countries where liquid food or ‘hodi’ forms of such as Sambars, masala and kiri hodi are discarded with rice as part of the food waste, the biodegradable component can easily permeate the rest of the waste. Combined with the hot weather conditions in our part of the world, a pile of waste can turn into an unmanageable stinking mess in no time. For an effective management of waste collected by local authorities it seems obvious that we should focus on the biodegradables.

Unfortunately, waste reduction policies in Sri Lanka have tended to focus on the non-bio degradable component of waste collected. For example, in the Colombo Municipal Council, the major generator of waste among local authorities, residents are asked to separate their waste into four containers –Blue for paper, Orange for plastics and polythene, Red for glass and metal and Green for biodegradables. If you ask the solid waste collection workers they will tell you what blue, orange, and Red stand for. But if you ask them about the green bin they tell you that it is for ‘kunu’ or garbage.  On hindsight it seems obvious that if you give specific labels to three containers and leave a fourth less defined category, most of the waste including soiled plastics and paper, non-recyclable packaging and miscellaneous discards such as old clothing and other consumer items will end up in the green bucket along with the biodegradable food and garden waste.

The color coded system for waste collection has its origins in better-ordered societies such Japan and Europe and US where waste composition also European counties. For solutions we need to look closer to home.Again, unfortunately the CMC has failed to secure a composting site for its waste.