Kainosis™ Composting Manifesto

*This page is under construction.

A lot of information bounces around this blog with frequent updates and revisions. We thought it would be good to have an anchor page that will allow anyone who comes in at any stage of development to have a clear idea of what we are doing here. At the same time, these pages will serve as a guide to CompostingInSingapore as future developments will certainly take things to places we can hardly imagine.

I know it’s rather confusing to have a Kainosis™ Manifesto as opposed to a CompostingInSingapore Manifesto, but the latter was too long and the former appealed to my innate need to name things. So we are quite permanently stuck with a Kainosis™ Composting Manifesto on a CompostingInSingapore Blog – which really isn’t a big deal, Kainosis™ does own and run CompostingInSingapore after all!

This Kainosis™ Composting Manifesto consists of some key assertions and references (which are also stated in summary points), which will allow clearer understanding of various points of the manifesto. Kindly be informed that for the most part, we have stated our team’s opinions as assertions, so you can follow the logic behind Kainosis™.

Conversely, references are based more on the opinions, findings and studies of others. Therefore, it would be more rational (if the need arises) to debate our assertions and correct our references (if we have misunderstood something or the findings have been updated), but not really vice-versa. We will do our best to discuss and explain our assertions, but kindly understand that to some point  it will come down to something no more than an opinion and parties should just agree to disagree.

Composting in Singapore is unlike any other type of composting. The closest description it would fall under is apartment composting in a tropical climate – we make a distinction here about the tropical climate and being in the tropics. When we say it is hot in Singapore, we mean “people sweating buckets even when just sitting and doing nothing” hot. When we say it is humid, we mean that “food rots in a mere few hours”; and when we say it rains, we mean “getting drenched in 10 seconds” type of rain. The weather in and around South-East Asia and other tropical climates make composting a different proposition altogether. Think: maintaining a compost pile in the middle of the Amazon – that’s what we are dealing with here.

Assertion 1: The tropical climate of South-East Asia requires a unique form of composting.

Assertion 2: Apartment composting must be properly managed in lieu of proximity to neighbors.

Singaporean Composting is also one that does not assume the convenience and luxury of a backyard. This is composting within the apartment itself, or within close proximity to the apartment from the public common corridor – Singaporeans will well understand the latter is subject to the flexibility and acceptance of neighbors. It is good then for our foreign friends to understand that in Singapore, a neighbor lives no more than a couple of paces away from your home. Proximity defines the neighbors of Singaporeans, although the proximity is not always coupled with hospitality.

Assertion 3: Majority of Singaporeans will be composting from/in apartment settings.

Objective 1: Develop a composting system relevant to the unique geographic landscape of Singapore.

Composting and recycling is also not a common concern for Singaporeans – that is of course euphemism for “Singaporeans don’t care about the environment”. Now, if you are a social/environment activist based in Singapore (or even better if you are Singaporean yourself), please hold the hate mail or the public defence. Let me first state that I do appreciate and admire the work of social activists like yourself; however it does not change that Singaporeans in general are apathetic to most issues.

The habit probably arises from an over-efficient government that has accomplished one of the world’s few truly “dump and forget” waste management systems. It comes at a cost which the government has brilliantly allayed over the years through effective budget management and a proactive approach to managing the country’s finances – put simply I hardly believe that the Singaporeans’ meager taxes are sufficient to pay for the truly utopian society we live in. Public infrastructure are maintained well beyond the levels of private infrastructure in other countries, and the efficiency (at a relatively low cost too if I may add) has diminished public awareness of the real state of the problem.

As commendable the Singapore government’s efforts have been, there is undoubtedly a limit to how far they can carry the burden of maintaining this hyper-efficient waste management system. Now we must deal with the attitudes that this national coddling has unfortunately nurtured (or rather festered). This will be a major design problem that CompostingInSingapore will attempt to address.

Assertion 4: Any food waste management system must be attractive enough to encourage proper food waste management.

Assertion 4a: Singaporeans will not forgo the “dump and forget” habit in the near future.

Assertion 4b: Any food waste management system proposed must have sufficient benefits to encourage behavior.

Objective 2: Develop an unobtrusive, intuitive and rewarding food waste management system.

Bearing in mind that Singapore may not forever retain this “pay one fee, dump all you want” system, we believe it is likely we will soon adopt the pay-as-you-dump model. On a side note, I think the government will as always introduce social safety nets to allow the poor to continue using disposal facilities for free.

Assertion 5: The Singapore government will at some point move towards a pay-as-you-dump model for waste management.

All these add up to our belief that composting will be a bigger part of our life that one will imagine. For now, we are still focusing on developing a rewarding composting experience, but that may become moot one day when proper disposal of food waste becomes the norm.

At this point, two key issues should come up in most of your minds. Firstly, some (actually many) people maintain the assertion that composting or proper disposal of food should come under the purview of the institutions (basically they mean the government should be doing it). I do challenge this statement quite strongly: For one, above 40% of food waste comes from domestic sources. Assuming maximum efficiency on the part of the government, we would still be dealing with only 60% of the problem. At some point, I am certain that the government will feel that the citizens must pull their own weight as well in this problem, or simply put up with higher waste management fees (again something griped about).

While I have covered the food waste management landscape briefly in the Foreword, I will do up another page sometime later to describe in greater detail other entities that are now in place. Suffice to say that here at Kainosis™ and CompostingInSingapore we believe that something must be done about domestic food waste.

Objective 3: Improve management of domestic food waste.

The second key issue at this point is also what form of composting that CompostingInSingapore favors. Those familiar with our work will know we suggest one of two methods: 1) raw vegetable composting for an individual/community approach to domestic food waste and 2) humanure composting for an institutional approach. Take note here that I have made a key distinction between the method and the objective. An institutional approach to domestic food waste is not the same as dealing with food waste on an institutional level – that would consist of food collection from markets and food centers. It is something IUT Global is already admirably handling.

Once again, I will put up a page soon describing and analyzing the different types of composting, but for now I’ll state our beliefs for the convenience of stating our case.

Assertion 6: Raw vegetable composting is the best approach to apartment composting in tropical climates. (Individual/Community Approach)

Assertion 7: Humanure composting is the best macro-approach to food waste management. (Institutional Approach)

*This page is under construction.