Trendsetting an Ecosystem of Resource Recovery and Value Addition in Sustainable Household Waste Management Applying a Systems Approach Model in In Situ Hydroponics

Abstract

The family, which is considered a microenvironment, is the basic unit of society. newlineEvery interaction with the macro environment results in resource interactions, newlinetransformations and many met demands as outputs that also include disposing of wastes newlinein the near environment. People are not aware of the values of accessible wastes (Reverse newlineosmosis retentate and organic kitchen wastes) generated daily at the home level and newlinetheir impact on the environment. With this backdrop, the study was conducted with the newlinemajor objectives of reusing / recycling wastewater (retentate) from domestic purifiers and newlineorganic wastes from the kitchen adopting home-level biological reprocessing, identifying newlineindigenous hydroponic strategies for raising safe edible plants from seeds using newlinerecovered resources and ensuring stakeholder involvement through knowledge-sharing newlineon eco-friendly indigenous household waste management. A household survey on newlinedomestic water purifier users revealed that use of a particular brand by West zone newlineconsumers (urban and rural) in Coimbatore to generate maximum wastewater (1:3 or newline4 L). Once the quality of retentate was found safe for reuse in raising plants, feasibility newlinestudies were conducted using seeds adopting in-situ hydroponic technique. The newlineexperiments proved successful with use of retentate for raising seedling in pro-tray newlinetechnique, fodder and microgreens. Microgreens had appreciable nutrient quality. newlineAnother form of household waste organic kitchen waste generated daily was converted newlineinto value-added product adopting vermicompost technology. On an average 5.73± 0.62 newlinekg of vermicompost was harvested in every batch, almost a 46-50 per cent conversion newlinerate. Using these two wastes (liquid and solid wastes) a good organic, eco-friendly newlinesolution was prepared for hydroponics. In-situ hydroponic trial experiments were newlineconducted for raising herbs, flowering and edible plants using NS 1 (solution using newlinecommercial vermicompost) and NS 2 (solution using Home- made vermicompost) with newlineretentate in different dilution fac