Subir Roy

Bangalore

THE office of Daily Dump is located on a quiet, leafy side street of Bangalore which must be one of the most pleasing in town. Along the wall, next to the entrance is lined up what looks like earthenware vessels piled one on top of another, each set forming a brightly painted post box-like pillar and the sets coming in different sizes.

But Daily Dump is not an ethnic artifacts outlet working out of a comfortable suburban home. As mainline business stories go, it is hard to beat. In its three years of existence its turnover has risen from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 4 lakh to touch Rs 12 lakh in 2008-09. And it is projected to treble again (as it did last year) in the current year to reach Rs 36 lakh.

While sustaining this exponential growth, it is able to meet its costs and research expenses. Last year it even made some money though Poonam Bir Kasturi, the innovative spirit behind the business, is not yet taking a salary. What is exciting to her is that the business already has eight clones (those who have adopted its model) across the country in Delhi, Goa, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Channapatna and Bhiwani, with Kolkata and Pune on the way, and the drawings that are the key to the business have been sent to 58 countries.

In this attempt to spread the idea across the country and the planet, Kasturi is not seeking to earn revenue through her intellectual property. All she is asking for is an acknowledgement which will enable others to access the concept through a “creative commons licence”. She has chosen this route because she is keen to develop a “replicable business model” which will promote sustainability. But “sustainability implies equity”, hence the decision to make the know-how easily accessible and affordable.

The business is startlingly simple and at its heart is the creation of a container that manages and optimises decomposition of garbage in a nontedious way. It lets you compost your home biodegradable waste like vegetable peelings right at home in the simplest possible way and at the end of two months you can have a little supply of ready to use compost which Daily Dump will be happy to buy off you. “The aim is to enable every house to manage its organic waste onsite,” says Kasturi.

A family of five produces half a kilo to 1.5 kilo of biodegradable waste per day. The stacked set of three vessels form a khamba (pillar) costing Rs 700 and a “leave it” pot costing Rs 500 (total capital expenditure Rs 1,200) where you deposit half done compost and literally leave it to stew in its own juice. “It is a process of aerobic decomposition, nature’s way of breaking down organic things,” explains Kasturi.

It goes like this. Separate the day’s organic waste and put it in the top chamber of the khamba and add dry leaves or sawdust or shredded newspapers equal to at least half the volume of the waste to supply carbon. When you repeat the process next day you will find the previous day’s input has shrunk 20 per cent from loss of water. Stir this concoction once in three days. (Also available is a stirrer.) Once a week add a mixture which is made up of chilli powder, baking soda, an accelerator (microbial culture) and neem and stir up the whole thing. This mixture has also to be bought and the running cost comes to Rs 75- 100 per month.

When the first container is full put it in the second place in the stack and when it is time to re-jig again put the second container in the third position. By then you will find that the stuff has become black. Continue with this process as the day’s supply of waste keeps coming in. When you need to empty the first pot transfer its content (half composted waste) into the ‘leave it’ pot. A normal family of five can create in a month 3 kg of ready to use compost which is both pest resistant and increases yields. You have to leave the whole paraphernalia on a balcony or out in the open for it not to stink but the process does attract maggot and ants. “This is a problem,” admits Kasturi.

The pots are made by local potters which can be done anywhere. The key doers in the process are local networks of crafts people. This is why the model is so easy to replicate and in Bangalore now there are 4,000 users of the process. Kasturi sees its success so far in being able to create a buy-in through word of mouth by addressing the cultural aspect of waste management. Carefully outlining what is new, Kasturi says, “when people see our success they say, why didn’t it happen before.” The key was, “I spent a lot of time on communicating on waste.”

On the broader issue of knowledge creation, she observes that “there is a lot of reinventing the wheel as firms compete in the same space devising their own way (jealously guarding their knowhow) of making the same thing. Instead knowledge should be shared.” How we spend our time is completely skewed. The plus point is that today “we have cracked manufacturing.” It is easy to get a prototype done for an idea involving a huge amount of precision work fairly easily. “But we have not cracked issues like equal distribution of opportunity and wealth.”

The whole problem is “people measure things in terms of ‘our life’. But I have to be ecologically concerned because the earth’s ecology does not belong to me.” To progress in this world knowledge has to be shared. A clone with freely accessible knowledge is like a custodian, son (with a sense of responsibility) not a franchisee, who is like a stepson.” The challenge is “how best to generate wealth.” The holistic idea encompasses “production, consumption and ecology.”

You don’t have such a life view in a vacuum. Kasturi traces it back to her father, Raghuvir Bir Singh, an IIT graduate from the first batch who went on to head the designing wing of HMT which in earlier days was at the forefront of machine tools and watches. Kasturi recalls how ideas about integrated relationships and sharing of knowledge which is intrinsic to India’s old culture floated around her house when she was young.

The other great influence in her life was her iconic teacher at the National Institute of Design, Mohan Bhandari. Earlier in life she set up a marketing unit for crafts. Then, as one of the founders of Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore, she taught there for 12
years. But then the bug got her, she wanted to do things and prove her ideas – “I am a hands on person.” She considers it a blessing that she has had a lot of “bizarre” experiences in life – “was in the midst of the Kutch earthquake”. And in Daily Dump “I am trying to figure out all I want to do.” What she knows is the “market does not drive her business, ideas do.”

There is a long unfinished agenda. Daily Dump, in a sense, is preaching to the converted. It does not address non-eco-sensitive people. And you also have to work towards community composting. So she is working with solid waste contractors of municipalities. It is a continuing story.

subirkroy@gmail.com

Sept-Oct 2009 Edition

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