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Don’t let the name fool you – Daily Dump ^[5] is an elegant solution to an age-old problem. A home-product winner in this year’s INDEX Awards: Design To Improve Life Competition ^[6], Daily Dump is a personal composting system that draws inspiration from the ceramic craft ware typically used in households and villages throughout India. Designed by Poonam Bir Kasturi and utilized primarily in Asia, Daily Dump ^[7] is a hygienic composting system that helps households to manage biodegradable waster matter and convert it into high-quality compost.

70% of the waste generated in the average Indian urban home is organic waste. Bangalore’s residents typically have houses with family garden plots adjacent to or right in their backyards. The general tendency is to throw any organic or ‘wet’ waste into yard pits or large piles at the end of neighborhood streets. According to recent studies, local families were getting increasingly frustrated with their public sanitation system when they observed their carefully separated waste being mixed in with non-organic matter in the transport trucks that were headed for local landfills.

Enter the Daily Dump design team ^[8] and their affordable solution for tackling waste recycling ^[9] right at home. Using a multi-tiered, aerobic (‘composting in the presence of oxygen’) method, the Daily Dump stacked units allow family members to easily rotate their food scraps and other compostables ^[10] in decorative ceramic vessels that artfully conceal the clean and efficient breakdown of waste. For those individuals or households where the composting process gets a bit out of hand, Daily Dump also offers a home visit service ^[11] where a “servicewalla” will come and advise you on the how-to’s of composting.

Daily Dump ^[7] generously shares its designs via an open source model where the entire product line ^[12] can be easily replicated in rural and urban craft centers throughout India and beyond. Not only is this product an award winner for its low-tech manufacturing process and high-impact solutions, but we also give it high marks for the numerous jobs it generates in villages where sustainable, indigenous materials are readily available.

Next up for the Daily Dump design team ^[8]? A mechanized composter for home use, which addresses the task of having to turn the compost pile by hand as well as recycling solutions for the service industry and large residential complexes. Daily Dump ^[7] states that in India’s urban centers “developers tend to highlight onsite gyms, clubhouses, and pools to attract customers, though we hope that soon they will use in-house composting units to do the same.”

+ Daily Dump ^[7]

+ Index Awards 2007 ^[13]