How Zero-Waste Living Helped This Bengaluru Man Save 60,000L Of Rainwater & Grow 6,000 Trees

Purushothaman is a retired technician of Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and he is leading a zero-waste life.

He lives in Ashraya Layout, Thambu Chetty Palya in east Bengaluru and for years now he has not produced any wet waste. To educate other members of the community about how to convert kitchen waste to compost, he also conducts classes.

The idea is to have the maximum number of people lead a zero waste lifestyle.

Bangalore Mirror quoted Purushothaman as saying, "We have not handed over kitchen waste to conservancy workers sinse 1996. Our contribution to the landfill in the form of wet waste is zero. We have been converting the kitchen waste into compost and using it as manure for plants."

"Converting kitchen waste into compost is easy and can be done at home without fear that it will release bad odour," he added.

Bangalore Mirror

Purushothaman is also the president of KR Puram Rising. "When I was employed, I had utilised all my earned leave to spread awareness about composting and leading a zero-waste lifestyle. After retirement, I have been spending my time to create awareness among residents on waste management," he reportedly said.

Saddened by the conditions of the streets of Ramamurthy Nagar which were littered with garbage Purushothaman decided to start an NGO focusing on reducing the garbage in the area.

"A few friends and I established Service India in 1996 to start door-to-door garbage collection in Ramamurthy Nagar," he said.

"There were only 4,000 houses in Ramamurthy Nagar and the area was under KR Puram City Municipal Council. The KR Puram City Municipal Council conservancy workers would visit out homes just once a week and it was very difficult for us to manage our waste."

"So, our NGO, engaged 32 workers for door-to-door garbage collection. They would segregate the garbage which would then be composted," Bangalore Mirror quoted him as saying.

Bangalore Mirror

Apart from waste management, Purushothaman also conserves water by rainwater harvesting.

While almost all of Bengaluru is concerned about water supply Purushothaman and his family are unperturbed because they are not dependent on Cauvery water.

"I do not have a borewell but there is no need for me to depend on Cauvery water. Our monthly water bill is around Rs. 100. I have saved around 60,000 litres of rainwater in two sumps with each having 30,000 litres capacity."

"My next goal is to reduce our dependence on Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company (Bescom)for electricity. I want to generate electricity by using rainwater in the near future," he added.

Bangalore Mirror

Apart from all this, Purushothaman has also created a bank to collect old used clothes.

"Our intention is to make the best use of used clothes. We collect used clothes from donors and give them to needy people, especially conservancy workers."

That's not all. He told Bangalore Mirror, "I have been spending my pension to buy notebooks for the needy children, besides taking donor's help. On an average, we distribute 40,000 to 50,000 notebooks every year."

On top of that, he single-handedly planted and took care of 6,000 trees in his colony and at home. For most others who are initially excited about planting trees, do so not giving a second thought to watering them each day and grow. Purushothaman promises people he'll do that for them too.

Purushothaman's way of zero-waste life is inspirational and if we adopt even a part of it, a lot of our water and waste related problems will be solved.