Design and Development of Compost Bin for Indian Kitchen

Abstract

Composting is the decomposition of organic waste by microorganisms under controlled conditions. Organic waste, which forms a significant part of municipal solid waste, has caused increasing environmental concerns. It is estimated that around 50 percent it can be composted. Instead, most of it is landfilled and incinerated. By composting organic waste, we can preserve resources and produce a valuable by-product that can be used as locally produced fertilizer. The existing compost bins have few challenges which are difficult to handle such as messy and smelly compost, time-consuming process (30-45 days), prone to insects and rodents and hard to clean. In addition, some of them release greenhouse gases. Cost issues are there with few automatic and high-end compost bins. This project aims at designing a compost bin for Indian household kitchen, which is easy to use, odor free, ergonomic in nature and visually appealing. Designed Compost bin consists of a separate chamber for compost starter, composting chamber consisting of a mixing blade (runs with help of a DC motor and rechargeable batteries), air filter setup and a compost collection tray. Rechargeable batteries used in the product makes it portable. The air filter contains pellets made out of Azadirachta Indica (neem) and Gomaya (Cow dung) which are used to keep away bad odor and acts as a disinfectant. Simple mechanism allows the user to maintain cleanliness. A video was made of the working of the compost bin for user feedback. Users appreciated the product for its colour, aesthetics, easy mechanism, odour free, easy handling, easy maintenance etc.