Rodas operates largest private-owned vermiculture pit in the city

Rodas, the designer business ecotel at Powai operates the largest vermiculture pit in the city, owned by any private operator. There are as many as 40 pits here, which are used to convert waste generated by the hotel into organic manure.

Vermiculture is the technique of using natural means (through earthworms) to decompose biodegradable waste and convert it into organic manure, which can be used as natural fertilizer. Says Sunny Sriram, General Manager, Rodas Ecotel "Hotels generate the maximum waste and we realized that we need to go one step further to ensure that this waste is put to good use. Hence the idea of setting up a vermiculture pit in the area took shape and we use this pit not only to convert the waste generated by the hotel but also societies and other commercial complexes at Hiranandani Complex. Every day about 1.5 tonnes of biodegradable waste generated at the complex is converted at this pit."


Elaborates Sriram," At the hotel we take great care to segregate the garbage using the 4-bin method. Black bin is for food waste (wet garbage), White bin (plastic,bottles,cans), Red bin (non-recyclable materials - cigarette butts, oily paper, broken glass) and Green bin (recyclable materials - paper, cardboard)."


At the pit, the wet garbage is kept in "walk-in-cooler" at 9-10 degree celcius while the dry garbage i.e. bottles, papers, cans, burnt oil is kept in the dry garbage area. The wet garbage is then screened & processed through a pulverizer (food crusher) machine. This machine reduces the volume of wet garbage by making it into a thick paste and removing the water and oil from it. Burnt oil & fat is then given to scrap vendors along with the dry garbage for recycling.