Not a wasted effort

A smelly encounter to an over-flowing dumpster during a walk urged city-based mec]hanical engineer Dr Kabir Udeshi to do his bit for a healthy environment.  

“I saw a dumpster with garbage over flowing and it felt wrong. I decided something has to be done as it is causing a lot of environmental damage,” says Udeshi who started his research trying to find best means of sustainable living.

An engineer with a PhD from the University of Michigan, he initially manufactured industrial combustion equipment making him realise the hazardous affect of chemical fertilizers. They say charity begins at home and that’s what happened here as well. The 40-year-old started composting at home but didn’t succeed.

Rhino Digester installed at Holy Family Hospital, Bandra

“To start with I didn’t want to send any of my organic waste out of the house. I started composting but that got smelly and messy really quickly. Then I searched for other options like anaerobic digester — biogas,” he shares.

Udeshi’s search landed him at Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI) in Pune. With the help of the institute, he built a biogas plant at home in 2012. “They gave me instruction on how to build a biogas plant. I brought the parts and put them together. They even sent me parts that I couldn’t find. That worked and there was no smell. It was a big plant, 6 feet in diameter and 6 feet in height,” recalls Udeshi.

Dedko in use at home

However, the machine brought its own challenges. It would shut down in winters and remained exposed for mosquitoes to breed, forcing the nature-lover to yearn for a better machine. He began reading more about generating organic fuel and soon Udeshi had his plan ready to make the second attempt.

“I started reading up on bio-technology, understood better what needs to be done, what bacteria is sensitive to, how to organise the structure well so it performs better,” he lists, adding, “I made a whole new design and shrunk it to the size of a washing machine and in this machine, temperature could be controlled. Since then, the machine has been running well in my house.”

Soon, the word spread and he had people asking him to make one for them, urging him to manufacture the machine on a larger scale. Called Dedko –meaning frog in Gujarati, it took Udeshi about two months to build his first plant. Costing `25,000 per plant, now it takes about 10-15 days to built 10 plants.

“There is a jar that is filled with organic waste. Once it is full, we add a little water and just turn it so the waste gets crushed. It takes about 30 seconds just to turn it. After that, it becomes like a paste and you put it in the machine. The time investment is not more than five minutes a day and it can take upto 2 kg waste per day,” he explains. The gas generated is stored in a balloon like structure from where it is used for cooking. Almost 30-40 per cent of cooking in Udeshi’s home is done on the biogas generated by Dedko. At the same time, the machine also produces organic fertiliser.

Today, he supplies the plant from Gujarat to Goa. In the city, people from Thane, Mulund, Bandra, Santa Cruz, Dadar, Shiaji Park to Worli are cooking on the gas generated by Dedko.

Besides homes, a larger version of Dedko, called Rhino, has been installed at the Holy Family Hospital & Medical Research Center in Bandra. “The hospital generates 150 kg of waste every day. It has big crushes, is completely automated and has control panels. The gas is compressed and stored in cylinders. They use the gas to cook from 5 am to 2 pm every day,” he smiles.

Taking the noble idea ahead, he has developed E-Dedko, which he says can be put together even by a child. “It is a DIY kit. We have people calling us nationally and internationally asking for this machine. So, we decided to make it in a way that anybody can accommodate. We will launch in a month or so. We also have a lot of trainer videos with it,” he adds.

Just how we have toilets on the roads, Udeshi hopes in the times to come there will be waste converting machine everywhere. “It will be as common as that,” he concludes.