Community Environmental Action

SUKANYA SHETTY

THE sprawling 4,000-sq ft li-brary has been there fornearly a decade but couldhave been easily missed untiljust a few weeks ago. Thespace, provided by the civicbody to non-profit trust Ma-harashtra Mitra Mandal nearthe Bandra Gymkhana, hasgot a new lease of life — withnew shelves, Warli paintingson walls, colourful seatingspace, Tin Tin and NancyDrew.

Three friends — Vibha Ka-mat, Sonal Bimal and VaishaliShende — had brought aboutthe much-neededchange to infusethe reading habitin children. The li-brary, located on the groundfloor of Princess building, willnow be an exclusive space forchildren.

The trio, belonging todifferent backgrounds, hasone thing in common — acraze for books. “As a kid, Inever cared what the booklooked like; if it was newlybound or in a tattered con-dition. I would just pickthem up and start readingthem feverishly,” saysVaishali, who freelanceswith a NGO on disastermanagement.

Just two months intothe project, the library is al-ready home to as many as2,500 books. “The count is

rising by the day. We just re-ceived another bunch of 50books,” adds Sonal, an ap-parel consultant. The library,they say, is not just the cre-ation of three people comingtogether and pulling in a fewmore adults. “Kids have

shown equal par-ticipation in ourventure. It’s heart-ening to see a child

come up and donate his/herbooks to us. Many childrenhave given us their prizedpossessions,” Sonal says.

The three are concernedabout the funds. “We havespace for a few thousandmore books. Help and sup-port have been pouring in,but we need funds to sustainthe project,” says Vibha, aFrench teacher.

Maharashtra Mitra Man-dal had entered into a con-tract with the BMC in 2003to run a library for 30 years,but it had not really made abreakthrough. “I had beenscouring for some space toset up a library for a longtime. When I visited thisspace, I knew this was it,”Vibha beams. The trio alsoplans to have a space formovie screening. “Would notit be fun for kids to knowhow Charlie’s chocolate fac-tory actually looks like? Weplan to have an informativeand intellect-stimulating filmlibrary too,” Sonal says.

AAKRITI VASUDEVA

FED UP with the mountingheaps of garbage in his area,Christopher Pereira, decidedto take matters into his ownhands. “The main purpose ofan ALM is effective wastemanagement through segre-gation and composting. Butwe realised that despite ourALM setup, we weren’t doingenough because compostingwas seen as a filthy andstinky process, “ said Pereira.He decided to change that

and thus the compost tum-bler was born.

Pereira is the architect ofthe compost tumbler, a prod-uct which turns any kind ofbiodegradable garbage intohigh grade compost withoutany smell. “Most societiesmake composting pits, whichsmell and are sometimes in-fested with rodents andpests. We studied variousmodels, including thoseabroad, to find an easier and

more practical way of com-posting. That is how the ideaof a compost tumbler came

about,” said Pereira.The tumbler is a plastic

drum that is pivoted on a

metal stand and coveredwith a lid which is claspedfrom both sides. It can ac-commodate waste from five-six families, which is about 5to 10 kg per day. “Since it hasa tight lid, there is no smell atall. You can put any kind ofkitchen waste, includingmeat and bones, tree wastesuch as dry wood andbranches as well as industrialwaste like saw dust, paperand wood shavings in it, andall of it will turn into rich ma-nure,” said Denzil Rego,Pereira’s partner in the initia-tive. One batch of waste cangive you a tub full of com-post, which is sold in themarket for as much as Rs 120a packet. However, non-biodegradable waste such asglass, metal and plastic can-not be used.

The form of composting isaerobic, with holes at the up-per end for ventilation and atthe lower end to drain outwater. “It is a simple and easyprocess which requires veryless space. All you need to dois deposit your waste in thetumbler and turn it twice aday and you’ll get compost in10 to 30 days,” Rego said.

They visit each site once aweek to provide support andmaintenance. For larger hous-ing societies, Pereira has de-signed a compost bin, whichhas a capacity of 440 litresand can cater to the waste ofabout 40 families a day.

From just an idea on pa-per a little more than a yearago, the compost tumblerand bins have come a longway to now being quitesought after.

“Earlier, it was just a solu-tion to our ALM’s problems inBandra. But after seeing theresults, people started ap-proaching us and we made itavailable to them at an af-

fordable price. And now, peo-ple all across the city are us-ing them in areas includingCharni Road, Byculla, Kalina,Andheri, Goregaon, Maladand even in Vasai and Karjat.Infact, my friends in Delhiand Pune have started it too,”said Pereira.

“But our focus is on edu-cating school children andthe college going youth whoin turn will convince theirfamilies and carry this tradi-tion forward and save the en-vironment,” said Rego,adding, many schools havenow started the practice.

Waste is a matter which ismostly approached withslight hesitation and evenaversion, says Rego but theattitude of people has beenshifting gradually. “We didface some resistance earlierbut once people saw the firstbatch of compost that they

had produced themselves, itchanged their views,” saidPereira. “This is a way inwhich each individual cancontribute to reducing thewaste and feel free of thecrime of adding to environ-ment degradation,”added Rego.

REAL PAGE 5MUMBAI I SEPTEMBER 25, 2011EXPRESS

SwishSet

movers &shakers

ManagingWaste

Fed up with the mounting heaps of garbage in hisarea, Christopher Pereira, conceived the idea of a

compost tumbler, which turns biodegradable garbageinto high-grade compost without any smell

BOOK SPACEMeet Vibha Kamat, Sonal Bimal and Vaishali Shende who havegiven a new lease of life to a library near the Bandra Gymkhana.

DILIP KAGDA

Denzil Rego, above, and the architect of compost tumblerChristopher Pereira DILIP KAGDA