Most of the 4500 Enkanini residents don’t have access to electricity, and about 80 flushing toilets are shared amongst them all. Roughly seven concrete skips of waste are generated by the community each week, but for various reasons they are not collected. The accumulation of waste in public parts of Enkanini was the project’s main focus, and prior research found that over 50% of waste produced at Enkanini was organic, making the Bokashi Composter a potentially effective and sustainable solution. The objective of the project was to not only store or remove food waste safely, but also to turn waste into a valuable resource: compost.
The Bokashi Composters are produced by Probio, a South African product developer that specializes in probiotic based chemical alternatives. Bokashi, a wheat bran that has been inoculated with SCD Probiotics, uses probiotic technology to kick-start a fermentation process, allowing food waste to decompose safely and healthily without any of the odours and health risks of rot. The Bokashi Composter also produces a nourishing compost conditioner that boosts the speed and quality of plant and vegetable growth, which promotes the creation of potential urban food gardens. Overall, Bokashi Composters have the ability to hugely improve the quality of life for those who live in low-income areas all over South Africa, and this project set out to test that theory.
One hundred households were given a Probio Bokashi Composter, and clear instructions on how they worked and how to use them were given to the participants. Participants were told to drop off their Bokashi treated food waste at a designated area, where the compost processing and gardening was taking place. The project organizers made sure that ample information was provided about the Probio Bokashi Composters. Participants were informed of the benefits of probiotic technology and the difference between Bokashi and man-made, chemical based products.
The numerous benefits of the Probio Bokashi Composter were a huge motivating factor at Enkanini, and uptake and participation were as high as 70 – 90% throughout the project. The project provided valuable data regarding the future use of Bokashi, and also highlighted potential obstacles, such as limited running water and limited space. If the project was to be taken further, a wendy house or container would need to be installed to hold equipment and store fermenting waste, and a spacious area would have to be demarcated as a vegetable garden.
Despite these logistical obstacles, the Bokashi Composters addressed almost all of the waste related problems at Enkanini. They eradicated the need for waste transport or removal systems, they removed almost all health risks and bad odours, and they provided compost materials and compost conditioner that hugely assisted in the future growth and maintenance of urban food gardens. If certain developments were implemented, the Bokashi Composters could change the lives of all Enkanini residents, making the community safer, healthier and more sustainable.
Read more about the Bokashi Composters at www.probio.co.za and contact them on 021 865 2832 or info@probio.co.za
Images courtsey of Probio and Vanessa von der Heyde