Garbage In, Compost Out
Daily Dump makes your trash work for you, and maybe make some money too …….Anirvan Ghosh
DO you compost? Thats the first question Poonam Kasturi asks us. Most of us do not think twice before dumping our garbage and some of us like to believe that it is being converted, or recycled as compost by one of the firms. But for Kasturi this has become a mission, one that has spurred a host of micro industries and makes great business sense too. In just two years since its inception, Kasturis brainchild Daily Dump is looking at an annual turnover of Rs 12 lakh. Made of terracotta and available in various sizes, shapes and colours, the Daily Dump composters make composting clean and hassle-free. Her company retrofits composters at homes and also at other establishments, and provides maintenance advice and assistance. It has got detailed service plans for prompt and efficient response to customers.
Daily Dumps biggest single order has been through a Rotary club in Kottayamthey were sold 300 units and orders for another 850 are being readied. The point is to get local potters energised to supply locallywe are developing a group of potters in Belgaum now, says Kasturi. To get started is quite simple, as is the rest of the process. The composters consist of three pots placed on top of the other. Kitchen waste should be thrown into the top-most pot and this pot should be replaced by the second one once it is full. It takes about 90 days to get a whole pot of compost. Apart from homes using the compost for their own gardens, some people have also sold it off to nurseries that are willing to buy it at around Rs 20 a kilo. So generating more compost is actually profitable, points out Kasturi. The composters are available in three sizes, with a starting price of Rs 400.
It began with the simple personal need. Did you know that if you cook at home, your kitchen is likely to produce at least 750g of natural waste every day? If recycled, it can make compost and be used to replenish the top layer of any soil. This is what the people in her team are passionate about. Kasturi does not like giving motivational talks. I believe that most people I have employed are intelligent, and have figured out the system and dont need to be given organisational spiel, she says.
Kasturi, through her talks with friends, figured that there are lots of motivated people out there who only need to see the simple power of this idea and they will then run with it. And they should be allowed to do it their wayhence the clone mechanism. This is building a mutually reciprocal network of self motivated people who believe enough about doing direct first steps to make change happen. I believe that this will generate wealth for all of them in addition to purpose, pride and dignity, says Kasturi. She is not looking for venture capital as such, and the initial investment in the company was from her own savings and business advice from her friends. I want to run it my way, she says. Her unique working system has kept her manpower costs pretty low: she had invested Rs 22 lakhs to start this business.
As for the hands-on work, helping her out were some of her students from the Srishti School of Art of which she is the co-founder and taught for twelve years. The work timings are not nine to five. That kind of structure is not for me, says Kasturi. There are no fixed work hours. Daily Dumps team is a nomadic bunch of youngsters.
Kasturi explains that many art and design students, as well as those interested in recycling and the environment, use Daily Dump as a stepping stone, giving it their energy and focus for some months before moving on. And thats the way I like it, she says firmly. Interestingly, a couple of people who started off as customers are now part of her team.
The Daily Dump team operates out of a basement office in Kasturis home in Indiranagar in Bangalore. This is no ordinary, dingy, unlit space but a big, open room with flowers growing outside and a vibrantly coloured mural made of broken tiles lighting up the floor. The attention to design is not an acquired taste, but is a result of her training at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, from where she graduated in 1986.
So what about expansion plans? That would be through other people cloning her composts, and she even wants her current employees to venture forth and start their own compostmachine ventures. The highpoint of the company was when a 10-year-old urged his mother to buy a composter. Yes, this business is my home ground, its all the things I have talked to my students about and thought aboutits a life of practice, she signs off.
Poonam Bir Kasturi, founder, Daily Dump