Kitchen Waste to Biogas: How this Man in Telangana Helps People Reduce Cooking Cost by 80 Percent

Hyderabad: In a bid to recycle waste and generate renewable energy, a Telangana organisation is using kitchen waste to convert into biogas. Harshavardhan Erra, the Founder of Peepal Waste Managers, has been making helping people, institutions, corporates, and other organisations manage waste since the year 2014.

Harshavardhan Erra recommends bio-digesters, which enables anaerobic digestion (digestion in the absence of oxygen). He mixes two kg of waste with ten liters of water and feed it to the bio-digestor. The bio-designator is a huge enclosed drum-like structure which traps harmful gases like methane, which you can use to cook and whatever is left behind is pure organic manure. "The bio-digesters we provide trap methane, which is a greenhouse gas, which can then be used for cooking," says Harshavardhan.

Bio-digestors can help in reducing the cooking cost by 80 percent when compared to LPG expenses. Harshavardhan Erra says, “There is no odour, it can be installed in a small space and is easy to use”. Harshavardhan Erra also delivers lectures at schools and colleges about the importance of waste management. “Every household needs to be educated, especially about the benefits of waste management” adds Harshavardhan. “In 2015 I gave every household two bins for easier segregation of waste. But people did not know how to use it. Many bins ended up as buckets in bathrooms," he says.

Harshavardhan says that a kilogram of biogas can be made with 10 kgs of kitchen waste. Before installing the setup, Harshavardhan calculate the amount of waste being generated daily and accordingly the biodigester tank is fixed. “I want every household to practice waste management. The challenge is education and awareness”, he adds.

As of now, Peepal Waste Managers have installed more than a thousand bio-digester tankers across the state. “We have turned a village in Adilabad, Telangana into bio-digesters gas usage village. Now we are aiming that we’ll increase this count more with the support of Telangana Govt.” Says Harshavardan.