The theme of SHS-2023 is ‘Garbage Free India’. On this occasion, ICAR-CIRCOT organized an awareness campaign about generation of wealth from waste by aerobic composting on 29th September 2023. The staff members and students of the Institute participated in this campaign. Two aerobic composting bins are being maintained at the Institute for more than a period of five years. The wet wastes for the compost are collected from the kitchen of Institute’s canteen and dry wastes (dried leaves) from the surrounding. In addition, based on the requirement, cottonseed hulls, cottonseed meals and other organic waste materials generated during the research work are also added in the compost bin.
After addition of these wastes into the aerobic compost bin, required microbial inoculum is added and mixed thoroughly. Intermittent mixing of the materials inside the bin is done to create aerobic environment. An average of 3 to 4 months is required to create one batch of good quality compost. Dr. Sujata Saxena, Principal Scientist and Head, CBPD coordinated the campaign and demonstrated the addition of inoculum into compost bin for the participants. Dr. N. Vigneshwaran, Principal Scientist explained the benefits of aerobic composting of solid wastes and segregation of wet and dry wastes at the source to the participants.
