Session on Environmental Sustainability – TrashIt CEO talks to KSBL Students

Karachi, March 09, 2022 (PPI-OT):The Environment and Sustainability Club recently conducted a session with Anusha Fatima, CEO and Founder of Trashit, where she shared her journey of establishing her business, and how the idea came about. Fatima shared how she was often bothered by the waste accumulated in the streets and wanted to do something about it. With an educational background in Computer Science from Habib University, she took many courses outside her main area of study and she read a lot.

At a 3-day competition held at her university she and her team developed an idea for reducing organic matter and using it to make compost. Her team won second prize! It was this same team that has been there with her not just for the 3-day competition but are the core of the successful business today. Anusha also shared “Don’t worry, if you have a good idea with humble purpose – the finances will come.”

In the session students learnt many key environmental concepts including that organic waste is 50% of all waste generated. It produces methane gas – which is much more harmful to the environment than carbon emissions, it is difficult to separate once mixed with other materials and it contaminates other potential recyclables. Individuals and companies can make a difference just by segregating their organic waste at source.

Segregation at source does not take much time nor effort, all it takes is a separate container to collect the organic waste at the source of generation such as in kitchens. Segregating not only reduces pressure on public solid waste collection services and landfills but also helps reduce methane gas production.

Most of all, it is a nutrient rich source for fertilizer for your garden, plants and growing your own food. She emphasized that anyone living even in an apartment can also start composting in a small pot or in TrashIt’s “Eco-khamba” which only takes up one pot worth of space outdoors, making it fit easily in a balcony.

Fatima also demonstrated how to make compost. She explained that dry organic matter such as leaves, twigs and cuttings are high in carbon while fresh, wet matter such as vegetable and fruit peels, bread, cooked rice and pasta are high in nitrogen. To get a good compost, one needs to balance the carbon and nitrogen by layering the matter while placing it in a terracotta pot.

For more information, contact:
Karachi School of Business and Leadership (KSBL)
National Stadium Road, Opposite Liaquat National Hospital,
Karachi – 74800, Pakistan
UAN: +92-21-111-11-KSBL (5725)
Tel: +92-21-34855382, +92-21-38771999
Email: dean@ksbl.edu.pk
Website: https://www.ksbl.edu.pk