SUKANYA SHETTY THE sprawling 4,000-sq ft li- brary has been there for nearly a decade but could have been easily missed until just a few weeks ago. The space, provided by the civic body to non-profit trust Ma- harashtra Mitra Mandal near the Bandra Gymkhana, has got a new lease of life — with new shelves, Warli paintings on walls, colourful seating space, Tin Tin and Nancy Drew. Three friends — Vibha Ka- mat, Sonal Bimal and Vaishali Shende — had brought about the much-needed change to infuse the reading habit in children. The li- brary, located on the ground floor of Princess building, will now be an exclusive space for children. The trio, belonging to different backgrounds, has one thing in common — a craze for books. “As a kid, I never cared what the book looked like; if it was newly bound or in a tattered con- dition. I would just pick them up and start reading them feverishly,” says Vaishali, who freelances with a NGO on disaster management. Just two months into the project, the library is al- ready home to as many as 2,500 books. “The count is rising by the day. We just re- ceived another bunch of 50 books,” adds Sonal, an ap- parel consultant. The library, they say, is not just the cre- ation of three people coming together and pulling in a few more adults. “Kids have shown equal par- ticipation in our venture. It’s heart- ening to see a child come up and donate his/her books to us. Many children have given us their prized possessions,” Sonal says. The three are concerned about the funds. “We have space for a few thousand more books. Help and sup- port have been pouring in, but we need funds to sustain the project,” says Vibha, a French teacher. Maharashtra Mitra Man- dal had entered into a con- tract with the BMC in 2003 to run a library for 30 years, but it had not really made a breakthrough. “I had been scouring for some space to set up a library for a long time. When I visited this space, I knew this was it,” Vibha beams. The trio also plans to have a space for movie screening. “Would not it be fun for kids to know how Charlie’s chocolate fac- tory actually looks like? We plan to have an informative and intellect-stimulating film library too,” Sonal says. AAKRITI VASUDEVA FED UP with the mounting heaps of garbage in his area, Christopher Pereira, decided to take matters into his own hands. “The main purpose of an ALM is effective waste management through segre- gation and composting. But we realised that despite our ALM setup, we weren’t doing enough because composting was seen as a filthy and stinky process, “ said Pereira. He decided to change that and thus the compost tum- bler was born. Pereira is the architect of the compost tumbler, a prod- uct which turns any kind of biodegradable garbage into high grade compost without any smell. “Most societies make composting pits, which smell and are sometimes in- fested with rodents and pests. We studied various models, including those abroad, to find an easier and more practical way of com- posting. That is how the idea of a compost tumbler came about,” said Pereira. The tumbler is a plastic drum that is pivoted on a metal stand and covered with a lid which is clasped from both sides. It can ac- commodate waste from five- six families, which is about 5 to 10 kg per day. “Since it has a tight lid, there is no smell at all. You can put any kind of kitchen waste, including meat and bones, tree waste such as dry wood and branches as well as industrial waste like saw dust, paper and wood shavings in it, and all of it will turn into rich ma- nure,” said Denzil Rego, Pereira’s partner in the initia- tive. One batch of waste can give you a tub full of com- post, which is sold in the market for as much as Rs 120 a packet. However, non- biodegradable waste such as glass, metal and plastic can- not be used. The form of composting is aerobic, with holes at the up- per end for ventilation and at the lower end to drain out water. “It is a simple and easy process which requires very less space. All you need to do is deposit your waste in the tumbler and turn it twice a day and you’ll get compost in 10 to 30 days,” Rego said. They visit each site once a week to provide support and maintenance. For larger hous- ing societies, Pereira has de- signed a compost bin, which has a capacity of 440 litres and can cater to the waste of about 40 families a day. From just an idea on pa- per a little more than a year ago, the compost tumbler and bins have come a long way to now being quite sought after. “Earlier, it was just a solu- tion to our ALM’s problems in Bandra. But after seeing the results, people started ap- proaching us and we made it available to them at an af- fordable price. And now, peo- ple all across the city are us- ing them in areas including Charni Road, Byculla, Kalina, Andheri, Goregaon, Malad and even in Vasai and Karjat. Infact, my friends in Delhi and Pune have started it too,” said Pereira. “But our focus is on edu- cating school children and the college going youth who in turn will convince their families and carry this tradi- tion forward and save the en- vironment,” said Rego, adding, many schools have now started the practice. Waste is a matter which is mostly approached with slight hesitation and even aversion, says Rego but the attitude of people has been shifting gradually. “We did face some resistance earlier but once people saw the first batch of compost that they had produced themselves, it changed their views,” said Pereira. “This is a way in which each individual can contribute to reducing the waste and feel free of the crime of adding to environ- ment degradation,” added Rego. REAL PAGE 5 MUMBAI I SEPTEMBER 25, 2011 EXPRESS Swish Set movers & shakers Managing Waste Fed up with the mounting heaps of garbage in his area, Christopher Pereira, conceived the idea of a compost tumbler, which turns biodegradable garbage into high-grade compost without any smell BOOK SPACE Meet Vibha Kamat, Sonal Bimal and Vaishali Shende who have given a new lease of life to a library near the Bandra Gymkhana. DILIP KAGDA Denzil Rego, above, and the architect of compost tumbler Christopher Pereira DILIP KAGDA