Wet waste or food waste is easy to treat in small quantities. But the moment higher volumes are involved, people usually give up on composting it. Instead, the waste piles into mounds and ends up in landfills, where it does more than just occupy precious space. It decomposes and generates dangerous methane gases creating an unbearable stench. In fact, wet waste constitutes a quarter of all methane gas emissions, it can ignite dangerous landfill fires, and plays a major role in global warming.

Useful resource

Seeking to address this issue and deal with wet waste in an eco-friendly, cost-effective manner has attracted the attention of several innovators who have come up with composting machines. Bengaluru-based Waste is Gold Technologies is a company whose USP is the speed at which its proprietary composter breaks down wet waste and converts it to a useful resource.

The company’s flagship product, christened the Gold Composter, took around five years of research and development. Founder and Managing Director Sandeep Tiwary recalls how they started the process in 2014 and registered the company only in 2018, by which time they had managed to give a shape to their advanced aerobic organic waste composter. Still awaiting a patent, this has the capability to convert organic waste into high quality organic compost on the principles of aerobic decomposition in six to eight hours, making it one of the fastest processors.

Tiwary explains that their “cutting-edge technology employs oxygen-consuming microorganisms and a bioreactor to accelerate the breakdown of organic matter.” The company has diverged from traditional composting methods that are time-consuming and susceptible to harmful emissions like methane, odours and pathogens.

Swift decomposition

“Operating within a controlled environment that meticulously manages temperature, moisture, oxygen and aeration, the composter ensures swift decomposition while minimising undesirable side effects. The result? Organic waste undergoes rapid conversion into nutrient-rich compost, a boon for agriculture and soil enrichment,” says Tiwary.

The other plus he highlights is that the composters can take any kind of organic waste including cooked food waste, meat, bones, feathers, eggshells, tender coconut residue, grass, horticulture waste, even sludge from sewage treatment plants and tissue paper.

In fact, its organic waste composter has been evaluated by the National Green Tribunal and purchased by the Central Food Technological Research Institute for research and development purposes to set composting standardisation across India. Currently, the composters are installed across the country in about 150 locations. Waste is Gold hopes to widen its footprint overseas, envisioning “a world without landfills.”

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