CUBES

Long description

Each household of Kathmandu on an average produces 0.5 kg of wastes everyday of which around 70% is organic. Composting has remained a traditional, simpler and cheaper process adopted to manage the organic waste, which in turn produces compost useful for rooftop farming in urban context and local farming in rural context. A study reported that less than 10% of the waste will end up in landfill sites if all compostable and reusable and recyclable waste is utilized to maximum. However, only 30% of Nepalese households are found to do composting. During our preliminary studies we felt the scarcity of research from the behavioral perspective of Solid Waste Management. Therefore, to understand the behavioral aspect of what motivates or stops people from composting in Nepalese urban context, we conducted a survey targeting primary kitchen users, youths, residents including tenants of Kathmandu Valley. This contributed to understanding the overall chain of waste generation to disposal of waste in their household and their views of composting as a solution or nuisance. Technology is often a useful resource. With almost half of the Nepalese assessing smart phones for the internet, we saw the potential to explore how technology could be linked with friendly composting experience. So, we have worked on the novel concept on how to define and design technology that suits the Nepali diaspora and their requirements. We have researched and built an innovative bin prototype system that detects and transmits the message for the user regarding the composting process.

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