Condo Composting

Living in a building requires a more organized waste management system. We have a common garbage chute, scheduled and expensive garbage collection, and more sophisticated sanitary by-laws in our building handbook. We are conscious of keeping our Alexandra environment beautiful and clean. We took pride in getting our residents to, at the very least, segregate wet and dry wastes. We knew that dry, recyclable waste took up a wasteful third of the garbage bulk. These recyclables were to be sorted out in the dumpsites anyway. Our Alexandra Environmental Committee head, Grace Favila, explained that "we can sort out the recyclables to save dumpsite space". During Waste Managements Seminars, with the cooperation of Linis Ganda Spokesperson Narda Camacho, it was explained that "the garbage you throw away carelessly comes back to you" and "Never in the history of the world did we have to buy drinking water," because the garbage we carelessly dumped everywhere found its way back through our drinking water.

As concerned citizens of the community, this project caught the residents’ attention. As a nice bonus, Mrs. Favila illustrated that there was money in trash. The residents’ response was positive and in no time, the community was happily into segregation. We have been separating our dry recyclables into four categories–paper, cans, bottles/glass, and plastic–for more than two years now. There were large labeled bins provided for storage (for junk shop sale and collection every Mondays) in the basement. All of our dry recyclables were sold to junk shops, minimizing our contribution to the landfills by one-third and earning our utility personnel and helpers extra income (up to about P3,000 per quarter) and prosperous Christmas parties.

Hooray, we all seemed to chorus. To get the majority of a community of about 2,000 people to join this endeavor was surely triumphant.

But when the Payatas and San Mateo landfills shut down and the real garbage crisis kicked in, we could not find anyone to collect our garbage, no matter what we were willing to pay. This left us with a stinking pile of rotting garbage.

Everyone was complaining about the growing pile of plastic trash bags in the utility area. There were many flies. I tried to look the other way whenever I passed the trash area on the way to the car. But the SMELL.. it was too hard to ignore. Residents were sick with the stench that leaked into the elevator vents. It became specially embarrassing when we had guests. "What is that smell???!" they asked in disdain, all the way up to the 15th floor. My neighbor’s mom actually assaulted him once with "You actually can live here?!"

Something had to be done.

We had to take our waste management further and explored composting. The question was, Where? The lack of space was definitely a concern. A meeting was set with representatives from each of our 11 clusters to consider the possibility of Zero Waste Management via segregation, recycling and composting.

Composting is the natural decomposition of organic material into soil, a sort of ". . .unto dust you shall return". Worms, microbes and beneficial bacteria break down the organic waste and turns what was wet garbage into compost soil–rich because all those nutrients from the foodstuff goes back to the soil. It beats any fertilizer because instead of fortifying the plant, composting fortifies the soil. Composting wet waste is nature’s perfect way of cleaning up.

The mountains of garbage in the landfills did not actually have to be there. If everyone was to compost organic waste and sold the recyclables to the junk shop, we would not need a landfill. It was the most logical thing to do. And although we did not live in an ideal world, why should we stop trying? Many of the residents were appalled ("Yuck–maggots in our terrace?"). At first, all of us were repelled, then curious. After more information, we decided to give it a shot, well aware that convincing the residents to compost was a harder task than convincing them to segregate.

Mrs. Favila and the building reps then set out to give lectures and demonstrations to the residents and their helpers/cooks. First, a refresher course on segregating wet and dry garbage was given. Since we were realistic enough to know we couldn’t handle waste at a household level, only kitchen waste was encouraged. Fallen leaves and garden waste from the common grounds were composted by the Association’s gardeners. We were taught how to identify and compost kitchen waste, food trimmings and left-overs: fish gills, vegetable and fruit skins, seeds, pulp, tea bags, coffee grinds and filters. Left-over table food was also welcome, but big bones, fats, and eggshells are slower to compost. Chopping everything up in smaller pieces (1 inch by 1 inch) definitely hastened the process.

Then we bury the wet waste in flower pots using the "lasagna method": a layer of soil, then a layer of kitchen waste, then a layer of Happy Soil (a decay hastener, loaded with lacto-bacilli) and then topped off with another thick layer of regular soil to eliminate foul smell–until the pot is full. Keep the soil moist (to encourage decay) and covered (to discourage the birds or pests). After 30 days, the wet waste becomes rich compost soil, which we use to bury the next round of compost or use for top soil in the common gardens.

That was more than a year ago when we started composting in Alexandra. Last year alone, we reduced wet garbage collection from seven days a week to five days a week–and saved about P244,000 a year. These savings were ploughed back to the composting project: as of now, ten flower pots, Happy Soil and bilao covers are given to all residents interested in composting. Much of the funds will also be used to improve the aesthetics of the roofdeck (originally meant for laundry) composting area.

Many of the compost pots yielded mini-vegetable gardens because the seeds from the kitchen waste inevitably sprouted. Tomatoes and okra plants are plentiful, as are patola, ampalaya and many kinds of chili. There is a pechay patch in cluster D and an herbal garden of rosemary, basil, oregano and chili in cluster A.

This year’s solid waste management seminar, "Pot Sessions sa Alexandra," was well-attended by residents, janitors and maintenance staff. Together, we all affirmed our resolve to continue managing our waste by segregating, composting and recycling. Mother Earth founder Odette Alcantara explained that if waste were managed and segregated properly, there will be no garbage. The dry recyclables go back to Father Factory through the junk shops, and the wet waste goes back to Mother Nature via composting. On Earth Day, residents will focus on recycling by holding a Garage Sale to encourage re-using each other’s old things: "One man’s junk may be another man’s treasure."

Solid Waste Management is still a work in progress at Alexandra. We learn from our mistakes by experimenting. In the process, we learn what works for us and what does not. We are still looking for better ways to scientifically and aesthetically deal with our waste. And that may be the whole point: to keep trying to focus on solutions instead of focusing on the problem.