True confessions from a composting addict, our founder @odettekatrak :
“I started composting in June 2016, because I saw a composter MRP ₹2200 slashed to ₹500, and I am a sucker for good deals!”
She continues: so my initial reason wasn’t the pure environment angle, but composting soon grew on me, as my interest in reducing waste had already begun. And a growing concern for our environment made this feel like a product I should bring into my home.
All these reasons I’ve listed in this carousel are what held me back initially. In my very first cycle, I overfilled the composter and leachate leaked onto the floor overnight. It was a reason for the family to say get rid of it. I persisted and both the composter and I happily live on in the same home ☺️. And I am constantly encouraging more people to start composting, including apartment level interventions.
I started doing anaerobic composting with Smartbin from GreenTech life, and now do aerobic composting using both #GobbleMini from @dailydumpcompost and #Ebony from @endlessly_green
In this carousel, I have also included reasons given by many others for not wanting to compost.
Here’s the good news: each of them is not actually a valid reason. If you do it right, not a single one of these becomes a reason, but remains an excuse. So please just take this simple step forward and start composting.
Indeed composting is the most powerful climate action anyone can take right in their home. Bringing in the smell of fresh mountain earth into your home is a joyful experience. You are magically transforming waste that could potentially stink and generate methane adding to climate change, to fertile manure that enriches the soil. So many reasons to start composting if you aren’t yet doing so.
So go for it, everyone! Start composting. Spread composting fever. Let’s show our love for our planet.
Do share your experiences in the comments. And feel free to reach out for suggestions or support, because all those on this collab post are composting experts with the aim of making every home a composting home!
#Composting #Climateaction #SustainableLiving
Savita Hiremath (@endlessly_green ), Bangalore-based author, independent journalist, entrepreneur and SWM practitioner has spent the last 15 years studying composting methods, discussing the fascinating science and the gratifying art of composting. Author of the book 'Endlessly Green', she runs a composting entrepreneurship by the same name, rooted in the belief that more people composting helps our planet. Indeed she understands the ins and outs of composting and we're happy to share her quote.
This 'International Compost Awareness Week', we are doing our bit to spread composting fever through this series with inputs from many composting stalwarts.
Follow their pages to know how enjoyable it is, but also how simple it is. You'll find answers to every question you may have in the highlights of their pages.
Please add on in the comments sharing your experiences of composting, and who you'd like to see in our series next.
And tag those who would benefit from this nudge to start composting, and also those whose inputs will be welcomed by those keen to know more.
Together, let's choose to send out less waste and give back to our planet, for a brighter, greener tomorrow.
#InternationalCompostAwarenessWeek
#Compost #BlackGold
#Segregate #WetWaste
SAVING THE PLANET?
While we fight to 'save the planet' with paper straws, cloth bags, and steel cutlery, THIS is what goes on in the real world. Our eco-sensitivity is not the problem. Our ignorance of the larger picture is.
The solution isn't to stop what we do. Individual action does count. But we need to stop being distracted by it while the real damage happens elsewhere, at a scale we can't even imagine.
What can we do? Talk about it. Change the narrative. Because that's the only lever we have with our reach.
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Writes Aakash Gupta on X:
Zuckerberg's yacht once sailed 9,600 nautical miles, burned 676,800 liters of diesel, and waited two months in the South Pacific for him to show up.
He never came. It turned around and went home.
The vessel burns 1,165 gallons of diesel per hour at cruising speed. The carbon output of 630 cars running simultaneously. In nine months, it produced 5,300 tons of CO2, what 400 American households emit in an entire year.
Meta's sustainability report pledges net zero across their value chain by 2030. Zuckerberg's personal fleet (there's a $30 million support vessel that follows the yacht everywhere carrying submarines, helicopters, and water toys) produced more emissions on that single empty round trip than most people will generate in a lifetime.
The fuel tank holds 423,700 liters. A full fill costs about $230,000. Based on his 2024 wealth increase, Zuckerberg earns that in under 90 seconds.
Net zero is a line item in someone else's budget. It always was.
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Image source: sustainability-times.com
When I saw this image floating everywhere, even as precision-guided missiles struck their desired targets, my heart sank. For a moment, everything we do felt futile. Utterly so.
Yes, it is devastating to witness what is unfolding. We have every right to feel angry that a single war can dwarf decades of climate effort. And yet, these are not separate conversations.
Because individual habits matter. But the problem was never the paper straw. The problem is believing that using one ends the crisis. At best, it is a small gesture. At worst, it becomes a moral distraction.
Which is why we must demand more: transparency in military emissions, clear fossil fuel phase-out policies, regenerative agriculture at scale, and urgent reform of the waste system.
To make any of this possible, we must remain politically unaligned. Our loyalty cannot lie with any party. It must lie with principle. We must question and criticise policies—regardless of who proposes them—when they undermine ecological integrity.
Because power sustains itself. It exists for its own sake. It rarely pauses for human or environmental cost. And that cost is almost always borne by those with the least power.
#climateactionnow
#warandclimate
I was at IISc, Bangalore, to moderate a session related to SWM. This question popped up: “Hunger is the trigger to eat. Thirst is the trigger to drink water. What is the trigger for me to segregate waste?”
This really got me thinking. I thought, once in a while, it makes sense to apply reverse psychology and see the problem from the PoV of those who don't want to segregate. Likewise, if you have your own 'valid' reason for not segregating your waste, let us know. #wastemanagement, #compost, #swm, #segregation, #endlesslygreen, #savitahiremath
Waste segregation is a foundational responsibility within urban waste management systems. While policy frameworks, municipal mechanisms, and service providers play critical roles, the effectiveness of these systems ultimately depends on consistent action at the household and individual level.
Behavioural hesitation, lack of incentives, social discomfort, and perceptions of systemic failure continue to act as barriers. However, individual compliance remains essential to sustaining and improving waste processing, recycling, and recovery efforts.
Segregation is not merely a procedural requirement — it is a civic duty that supports public health, environmental sustainability, and intergenerational responsibility. Small, routine actions, when practiced collectively, meaningfully strengthen even imperfect systems.
📖 Read the full article here: Please Don’t Segregate Your Waste — Here Are 6 Valid Reasons
👉 /2026/02/05/please-dont-segregate-your-waste-here-are-6-valid-reasons/
#WasteSegregation #CivicDuty #SustainableLiving #UrbanWasteManagement #EnvironmentalResponsibility
Please don’t segregate your waste. Here are 6 valid reasons
"Hunger is the trigger to eat. Thirst is the trigger to drink water. What is the trigger for me to segregate waste?" This interesting question on waste segregation popped up from an audience while I was at A V Rama Rao Auditorium, Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bengaluru on January 30. I was moderating the inaugural session of "The Science of Sustainable Urban Living" conceived and executed by Bangalore Apartment Federation, Bengaluru Science and Technology (BeST) Cluster—an initiative by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Science and Technology Cluster....
/2026/02/05/please-dont-segregate-your-waste-here-are-6-valid-reasons/
This piece came together in less than two days. After reading fan letters written to literary figures like Jane Austen and Simone de Beauvoir, I felt the urge to write one of my own—to Charles Darwin. I imagined him at his desk at Down House in the UK, quietly observing the behaviour of earthworms in a small wooden box. He studied them for forty years. The thought that I was working with the same subject gave me an unexpected, nerdy high—honestly.
I hope you like the article. You can read it via the Linktree in my bio.
