Last year’s issue of ENPHO Magazine included an article on Home Compost Bins. The article had stressed the need for well designed and affordable compost bins to promote waste recycling at source, and had described the process of designing, producing and marketing Home Compost Bins in Kathmandu. Over the past year, about 300 of these bins, which are called “Saaga”, have been sold in Kathmandu and there is demand for more. The experience clearly shows that many Kathmandu residents are interested in managing their waste at home, provided that they are offered simple solutions that are convenient yet effective.

Simply selling compost bins, however, is not enough to solve the problem of waste management. The buyers of the bin must regularly use the bin in an effective manner and they must be satisfied with the performance of the bin. Therefore, in order to find out the views of the people who have bought the bins and evaluate the performance of the bins, Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) and Clean Energy Nepal (CEN) conducted a survey of 76 compost bin users. The findings of this survey are described in this article.

A questionnaire was prepared for the survey and surveyors visited households that have purchased a compost bin to see the application of the bin in the field and interview the users.

Among those surveyed, more than half had 3 to 5 people in the house while 26 percent had six to eight members in the family. On the other hand 10 percent of the houses had two or less people and 10 percent had more than 9 people. Therefore, the sample can be considered to be a representative sample covering various household sizes.

All the participants had used the compost bins and a few of them also practiced other types of composting such as compost pit in the garden and vermi composting. More than half of the participants had been using the bin for a year or more. Therefore, it can be assumed that most of the participants had enough experience using the compost bin to comment on its performance.

The survey showed that the compost bin was being used regularly. 80 percent of the respondents said that they composted all of the organic waste while another 18 percent said that they composted about 75 percent of the organic waste. This is one of the indicators for the success of the compost bin programme.

Most of the respondents (84 percent) said that they were either very satisfied or satisfied with the compost bin, while 15 percent said that they were not very satisfied. Only one respondent was very disappointed with bin. Similarly, 85 percent of the respondents said that they would recommend the bin to others. This clearly indicates that the compost bin has been very successful. However, there is a need to follow up on some of the users who are facing difficulties.

Regarding problems faced in using the bins, while 40 percent reported that they did not face any problems, 36 percent said that they faced problems and 24 percent said that they faced occasional problems. The most common problem seems to be bad smell and flies. Leachate coming out of the compost bin not being strong enough, and not enough output were other problems encountered. The problem of smell, flies and leachate can be controlled by adding dry materials such as saw dust, compost or soil.

Methods to address potential problems that may arise while using the bin, need to be clearly mentioned to the users during training. However, more than 40 percent of the respondents said that they had not received training in using the bins. This seems to be a major weakness in the compost bin programme. Clearly, KMC needs to give a short training or orientation to people who purchase the compost bin. In many instances, the person who purchases the bin may not be the one using the bin at home. Therefore, KMC must also make sure that the users of the bin are trained. The need for training was also suggested by several of the respondents as means to improve the compost bin.

The surveyors found that 79 percent of the bins were in good or excellent condition while 21 percent were in poor condition. This indicates that most of the users are taking good care of the bin, thus demonstrating that most of the people must be satisfied with the performance of the bin.

The users also seemed to be satisfied with the price they had to pay for the bin. About 72 percent thought that the price of the bin was reasonable while 28 percent thought that it was expensive. Over the past year, however, the price of the bin has increased from Rs. 600 to Rs. 750. Therefore, more people may now consider the price of the bin to be a bit expensive. KMC should therefore attempt to keep the price at this level or reduce it a bit by increasing the subsidy. As compost bins seem to be performing well, the subsidy would be put into good use.

The results of the survey clearly demonstrate that the compost bin programme has been successful and needs to be continued. However, there is room for improvement. Proper training for users and regular after sales service is necessary to ensure that all customers of the bin are fully satisfied with the service. The survey also showed that most people (39 percent of the users) first heard about the bin from friends. This indicates that word-of-mouth publicity is very important in further promoting the compost bin. Therefore, before and after sales service is a very important aspect of marketing the compost bins.
The first people who bought the bins are probably the people who are already motivated or are easily convinced to compost their waste. The challenge now is to take the “Saaga” Compost bin to a wider section of the society. This will require more effective marketing. It is therefore time to focus more on improving service delivery and marketing in order to make “Saaga” home compost bins a significant contributor to Kathmandu’s waste management system