POBSOOK RECYCLING CENTER
PAK KRET MUNICIPALITY, THAILAND
Pobsook Community is lined along the
Pobsook Street in Pak Kret, a neighbor of Bangkok. It has around 300 households made up of
professionals and office workers. Like
any urban community, fresh waste disposal is a problem. Its waste is made up of 50% organic
biodegradable matter, 35% recyclable wastes like plastic bottle, plastic bags, paper and cartons. 15% are
non-recyclable waste like diapers and styropor boxes.
The 12 year-old recycling center was
initiated by the members of the community with their growing garbage problem
which attracts flies, emits bad odor and affected the poor sanitation of the
community. Community leaders were
encouraged to solve this problem with the donation from the Japanese Embassy in
Bangkok and JICA of the Pobsook’s 270m2 recycling plant. The key to this environmental solution is the
use of EFFECTIVE MICROORGANISM TECHNOLOGY from Japan.
Although the methodology is proven in
Japan, it took about three years for the household to adapt the solution by
daily segregating their family wastes
into biodegradables, recyclables and the non-recyclables. Mr. Anake Homwan, the
Director of the Recycle Center of Pobsook under the management of Pakkret
Municipality, volunteered his time and talent for the past 13 years to make
this dream a reality – to make Pobsook Community a role model for the
successful reduction of household wastes while establishing the reputation of
being a recycle learning center in Thailand. The volunteers who are themselves
Engineers, teacher, nurse and office workers showed the way and dedicated their
time to make sure that all households follow instructions. As the daily procedure of segregation and
collection of biodegradables became routine, the center became an effective
model for Thailand urban communities.
All the 50% biodegradables were turned into compost which are either given to the urban container gardeners or sold to the nearby fruit farmers at 8 to 10 Baht per kilo.
POBSOOK
BOKASHI FORMULA
50 kg. D1 or D3-rice bran
50 kg. ground rice hull
5
liters rice rinse water – hugas
bigas
40 liters clean water or coco juice – buco juice
5
kg. molasses
3
liters EM-1. Make this 5 liters to neutralize very
obnoxious garbage.
Mixed
all the solid ingredients on the cement floor.
Then spray the liquid concoction made up of clean water or coco juice,
molasses, EM-1. Make a mound and cover
with jute sack. Mix the materials every
two days. After two weeks, the Bokashi is transferred to
plastic woven bags and kept in cool, dry place.
Moisture content is around 40%.
ANAEROBIC FERMENTATION
Place the mixture in plastic drums and
seal well. No need to mix. In ten days, the EM Bokashi is ready to use. White molds may appear on the top
portion. This is a successful
fermentation process.
HOW
THE POBSOOK RECYLCING CENTER OPERATES
COLLECTION OF GARBAGE
Each household are instructed to
segregate their biodegradable kitchen waste from the recyclables and
non-recyclables. Every morning from 7 to
9am, a tricycle garbage collector go around the community and collect the
segregated biodegradables. Used paper, plastic and glass are segregated for
recycling and are collected separately.
PROCESSING FOR FERMENTATION
The bio-organic kitchen wastes are
brought in with the plastic waste containers. These are emptied into the small
mixer. Layers of Bokashi prepared by the
Center is mixed as the wastes are unloaded. 20 kg. Bokashi to 100 kg. kitchen
waste. After three minutes, the electric
rotary mixer is unloaded with the treated wastes placed inside the woven onion
bag. The filled onion bags are placed
inside the fermentation rotary plastic drums.
These will be kept there sealed in an anaerobic condition for seven
days.
EM JUICE
The plastic fermentation drums have a
faucet at the bottom. The Bokashi
treated wastes will produce a liquid that can be removed through the faucet
after three days of fermentation. 20 liters per 200 liter drum of kitchen waste
can be harvested from 3 days to 30 days.
The EM Juice can be diluted 20 to 50 times to condition the soil, rich
in micronutrients. Dilute 10cc EMJ to 5
liters of water as foliar application for vegetables. Apply pure EM juice to sanitize drainage
canals to remove foul smell and clean the water and canal bottom. Similarly, this solution can be used to treat
septic tanks. Apply 2 to 3 times weekly in Septic tank. Maintenance cost of septic tank will be
significantly reduced.
Do not use EM Juice for cleaning floor,
wall or furniture.
Composting
After seven days, the drums with
fermented kitchen wastes are emptied at the mixing area. 1% Bokashi is again
applied liberally, with 10% dried leaves added to absorb more moisture from the
fermented waste. Then, a conveyor belt
brings the treated waste into the composting tank.
The tank has the capacity of three tons
for fermented waste. It rotates three
hours a day at 20 RPM. A blower is put on for two hours to provide aeration
inside and 2 hours of exhaust fan to circulate the hot air inside the
tank. At the other end of the tank is
an outlet where the finished product, composted kitchen wastes, are removed on
a first in, first out basis. The compost
is shredded to fine particles and air-dried on the floor before packing.
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| This is the conveyor that will bring this fermented kitchen waste inside the composting tank. |
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| The composting tank. |
Alternative
to composting tank
One of the most expensive equipment in
the recycling center is the composting tank. Although the cost is not
mentioned, it is the most complicated piece of machine. Engr. Homwan shared to us with another
“secret”. We can make our own composting drum with the following criteria in
mind. It should be able to rotate
slowly to mix the fermented kitchen waste while the composting process is
on-going.
Immediate
use of fermented kitchen waste
As we learned from the Kyusei Natural
Farming Center, the fermented kitchen wastes were buried under the vegetable
plots. In ten days time, this will be
fully composted and benefit the plants.
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| 12"-16" depth |
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| This is the actual picture from Bacolod City, Philippines. |
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| Pictures from different Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan, Season Long Training in the Philippines. |
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| Pictures from different Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan, Season Long Training in the Philippines. |
