Early Steps for a Greener Campus: Krea’s New Vermicomposting Club

Sri City: In Krea, everyone; students, faculty and staff alike, enjoys a lush green view of the campus. Amid this environment, where such greenery is valued, the idea of sustainable methods of waste management that looks to further this eco-friendly environment has found a new home.

Idea- Recently, a new club was launched under the initiative of our residence manager, Susnata Har, dedicated to vermicomposting. Interestingly, this was not his first venture into taking such an initiative.

“The first time was in my house in Kolkata during covid in 2020” he recalled. When the world was at a halt in 2020, a pause in his music career brought him back to his house in Kolkata, “My didi used to cook really good vegetarian food, it left a lot of vegetable waste, like fruit peels” he expressed, “I started wondering where these waste products ended up”.

His curiosity led him to discover India’s waste management systems, discovering how much of it ends up in landfills, contributing to the production of harmful methane gases in the process. At the time he only had a faint recollection of leaf composting, something he  remembered learning in school. Keeping that in mind which he started researching more methods of composting and soon discovered vermicomposting, i.e, “worm compost” a process that uses “red wiggler worms” to break down organic matter far more efficiently than leaf composting . “It is a superfood for plants and acts as a fertilizer,” he explained.  It initially started in his own backyard, where he used the organic products from his own kitchen, cardboard boxes from delivery packages, coffee grounds, torn newspapers, egg shells to start vermicomposting. After joining the university, this process was taken up for the first time in the year 2023 with the Operations team in Krea, digging up a 10-foot pit behind RH 5, harvesting vermicompost nearly twice utilising waste from Kalai like rotten vegetables, like tomatoes, cauliflowers, unused cabbage leaves. However, due to a cyclone hit that damaged the roofing and structure of this process this initiative had to be left behind owing to the construction works that was about to take place. 

This year, he was approached by a few students discussing the idea of taking up the project once again, “In front of the laundromat, I saw two tubs being used for cleaning and I thought those could be used to start the project in a small scale”, he recalled. In August, he floated a form to gauge the interest of more students in Krea and after receiving a response from around 25 students, he started the club. The club is now completely shaped by the efforts of its student members. As Mr. Susnata praisingly claimed, “I don’t touch anything but simply guide them. The students engage the most and do everything themselves. They show the success of the product that is vermicompost.” He added, “This is also essential so the operations team can be confident that students are willing to put in the effort for this meaningful work.”

The process of making vermicompost has already begun as of lately. It started with creating the bedding inside tubs, using dried leaves, torn paper, eggshells and cow dung cakes which were left to sit for a week. Afterward,  the worms were added, allowing them to be settled into a humid and nutrient-rich environment. Progress has already been made in this club as. Although there were saplings that recently sprouted in the tubs turned out to be weeds, their healthy growth indicated that the compost was already proving to be a rich fertilizer. 

The short-term goal of the club currently is to demonstrate this project’s success to the Operations team in Krea and eventually move the vermicompost to a larger scale, measuring approximately twelve feet in length, six feet in breadth and 2 feet in height, under the nursery near the perimeter. According to Mr. Susnata, this project could be a fast process as the number of redworms increases in number with much efficiency in larger spaces. 

Once the vermicompost is ready as a fertilizer, it can serve not only to enhance the greenery across campus but also to generate revenue. “The vermicompost can be sold as well to make a yearly revenue," he explained. “The college can utilize waste to also gain revenue, which can then be reinvested into making more meaningful things for the campus and students, mainly targeting the campus environment and producing more greenery.” 

“My primary goal is that I really want this campus to be the greenest,” he expressed. He optimistically looks forward to furthering the progress on this goal by incorporating more sustainable and environmentally friendly projects on campus like rainwater harvesting, creating biogas and even introducing solar pumps in the future, building upon the success of this first green initiative.