List the steps for preparing vermicompost.
(i) Dig a pit about 30 cm deep or select a wooden box.
(ii) Spread a net or chicken mesh at the bottom .of pit or box. You can also spread 1 to 2 cm thick layer of sand.
(iii)Spread some vegetable wastes including peels of fruits over the sand layer. You can use green leaves, husk or pieces of newspaper, dried stalks of plants and dried animal dung.
(iv) Sprinkle some water to make the layer wet. Do not
(a)Use excess of water
(b)Press layer of leaves or waste so that it has sufficient air and moisture,
(v) Now, buy some redworms and put them in the pit.
(vi) Cover them loosely with a gummy bag or an old sheet of cloth or a layer of grass.
(vii) Redworms need food. So you can provide them as food—vegetable and fruit peels, coffee and tea remains and weeds from the field or garden. Bury this food about 2-3 cm inside the pit.
(viii) Do not put salt, pickles, oil, vinegar, meat and milk preparations. This may cause growth of disease-causing organisms. Redworms do not survive in very hot or very cold surroundings.
(ix) After 3-4 weeks, put some waste food in one comer of the pit. Most of the worms will shift towards newly added food.
(x) Remove the compost from the vacated part and dry it in the sun for a few hours. The vermicompost becomes ready for use.
Observe the bins and waste material heaps and suggest what materials can be used for preparing handicrafts materials.
Can you make something useful of these waste material?Powder containers, cold-drink cans, plastic bottles, shoe-box.
What suggestions you will give to members of locality to solve the problem of waste material?
(a) Collect pieces of different kinds of paper. Find out which of these can be recycled,
(b) With the help of a lens look at the pieces of paper you collected for the above question. Do you see any difference in the material of recycled paper and a new sheet of paper?
(a) Collect pieces of different kinds of paper. Find out which of these can be recycled,
(b) With the help of a lens look at the pieces of paper you collected for the above question. Do you see any difference in the material of recycled paper and a new sheet of paper?
Discuss:
(a) Is garbage disposal the responsibility only of the government?
(b) Is it possible to reduce the problems relating to disposal of garbage?
(a) Which kind of garbage is not converted into compost by the redworms?
(b) Have you seen any other organism besides redworms, in your pit? If yes, try to find out their names. Draw pictures of these.
Municipality provides two types of dustbins for garbage collection. One coloured with blue colour and other with green colour. From following wastes which you will put in the which dustbin?
Plastic materials, metals and glass items, wastes of plants and animals, peels of fruits and vegetables, dried leaves and twigs, remains of meat like flesh and hopes.
Can you replace the following packaging material with those which can be recycled or reused.
(1) Milk packets of polythene.
(2) Dry eatables in polythene.
(3) Gift items packed with shiny material.
(4) Glass tumblers packed in thermocole box.
(a) What do you do with the left over food at home?
(b) If you and your friends are given the choice of eating in a plastic plate or a banana leaf plotter at a party, which one would you prefer and why?
Why should we not bum dried plant leaves and husk? What is the best way to get rid of them?
List the biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste products in your school What are the best ways to get rid of this garbage?
(a) Collect different kinds of packaging material. What was the purpose for which each one mas used? Discuss in groups.
(b) Give an example in which packaging could have been reduced.
(c) Write a story on how packaging increases the amount of garbage.
We should not add wastes containing salts, pickles, oil, vinegar, meat and milk products in vermicomposting pit to feed the redworms. Why?