Putting citrus peels to an eco-friendly task

CHENNAI: More often than not, the discourse around plastic excess seems to only revolve around single-use products and packaging material. We often tend to ignore the inconvenient truth about the tonnes of microplastics that get discarded along with the multitude of household cleaning products every year.

It was this nagging thought — and the small measure of guilt over the orange and lemon peels that went to waste — that pushed organic farmer and entrepreneur Archana Stalin to go further down the green road and begin making a sustainable cleansing product, bioenzyme.

Depending on your area of interest and how many gardenphiles you follow on social media, you must have already come across this magic elixir of bioenzyme.

“Its property is cleansing, dirt removal. If you want to replace your cleaning liquids — be it toilet cleaner, floor cleaner, dishwasher or detergent — this is an alternative. Its usage requires only varying levels of dilution. If it’s too dirty, add little water to it,” explains Archana. As exotic and unattainable as it sounds, all it takes to make this wonder liquid is some jaggery, citrus rinds and plenty of patience, she says.

“The process is simple. The common eco-friendly project people take up is compost. In compost, it is the initial set-up that requires work. Then, it is just a matter of keeping it going. Bioenzyme doesn’t require even that much work. The ratio is 1:3:10 of jaggery, citrus fruit peel (orange or lemon) and water. This is all you need. If you were to add yeast or buttermilk, it will speed up the process, giving you the yield in 45-50 days instead of three months,” she details. On day one, you put all three ingredients in a plastic bottle or container; do not use glass.

Archana had picked a biryani bucket that had been lying around in the house. Make sure to fill only 60-70 per cent of the container, leaving room for the gasses to collect. Put it away in a cool, shaded place, and let it ferment. For the first couple of weeks, you need to open the lid once a day to release the gas collecting inside, and then close it again. This can be slowly reduced to once in two days and, after a month of fermentation, once a week. “That’s all it takes; there’s no cleaning required — there’s only fermenting, and opening and closing of the lid. Now, there’s no fixed state of it being ‘ready’.

You need to make a call on whether the bacteria has been activated based on how clear the liquid is. So, you won’t see any difference after 90 days. It’s just that the power of the bacteria is ideal after three months. So, when the solution is ready, you filter it and collect the clear liquid,” she elaborates. The bioenzyme only smells like the citrus fruit peel you put in. Your clothes will not come out smelling like decayed fruit or soggy jaggery, assures Archana.

The biryani bucket gave her at least three litres of the concentrate. With her starting the next batch as soon as the first one was ready, she is set for another three litres by the time this set is used up. For those who would still find this to be too much trouble, there are a handful of stores that sell this online. Her first bottle came from an organic products stall at an event about sustainability. But, it all comes down to a lifestyle change. “I get some satisfaction in not wasting all the lemon rinds.

This assuages the guilt I have from not composting. People should, ideally, start engaging children or someone in the house to begin this change. I teach gardening and farming to schoolchildren. During one online class, I taught them about bioenzyme. They were excited and wanted to do it at home. The kind of questions they ask and the curiosity they have, involving them would help the parents find the change as well,” she suggests. Here’s hoping your biryani bucket of change is close at hand.

Do it yourself
All it takes to make this wonder liquid is some jaggery, citrus rinds and plenty of patience. “The ratio is 1:3:10 of jaggery, citrus fruit peel and water. This is all you need. If you were to add yeast or buttermilk, it will speed up the process, giving you the yield in 45-50 days,” says Archana.