Concerned about the ‘new polluting trend’ masquerading as an eco-friendly garbage disposal solution, environmentalists and activists say it is impossible to generate compost within 24 hours.
Blogger and civic activist Savita Hiremath, who has done extensive research in the area of solid waste management, said the automatic machines were nothing but ‘glorified incinerators’, which caused more harm than good.
“The pre-compost generated is completely useless unless it is processed again to form compost. No one will buy pre-compost and it will end up being thrown outside again. This defeats the purpose of composting,” she said.
C.N. Manoj, scientist and founder-director of city-based Pelican Biotech, a waste-to-wealth generation company, explained that all automatic composting machines were based on electrical conductivity, where wet waste is heated and dehydrated.
“What comes out of this does not have any nutrients or microbes and hence, it is not safe to use them for plants, he said.
“The concept is very close to burning garbage,” he pointed out. The best approach, experts and government officials say, is to compost the organic way, which takes about 30 days.
This approach ensures good manure, is inexpensive, and low on maintenance, experts said. “Apartments should adopt community composting,” said N.S. Ramakanth, waste management expert.