The Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) is encouraging residents to opt for home composting for a better waste management in the city. Additionally, the GMC has begun pilot projects in several parts of the city. City-based NGO Environ and Bangalore-based Daily Dump have been carrying out such projects across Manipuri Basti, Milan Nagar and in Shantikam apartment in the Beltola area since June. "These projects help families compost organic waste. It's an easier and cheaper way of getting rid of waste. Gradually, we will try and implement such systems across the city," said Narayan Konwar Commissioner, GMC. The corporation is assisting both Environ and Daily Dump in their projects, he added. Environ has developed a 'waste assimilator' for solid and liquid waste management in households. The waste assimilator is a small bin made of plastic or concrete and using a simplified technology of enhanced microbial growth that assimilates biodegradable solid waste quickly through a hybrid earthworm. Daily Dump uses a similar kind of mechanism and the manure that is produced can be used in gardens. According to sources, if the entire city, comprising around 3 lakh households, adopts these systems, the total cost of keeping it clean will decline by a huge margin. At present, the GMC has to spend around Rs 80 lakh every month to keep the city clean, while in-house composting will cost only around Rs 60 lakh per month. Recently, Guwahati was ranked 51st among 476 tier-1 cities in the country in a survey by the Union ministry of urban development and sanitation on Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. "Several apartments and offices, including the AG office, IAS officers' colony and Sankardev Kalakshetra, have shown interest in adopting this mechanism. We have ordered more such units and they can be implemented at a cost of Rs 5 lakh," Konwar added. The GMC will bear 70 per cent of the total cost of implementation. "We are encouraging residents to adopt the in-house composting mechanism. This is the only solution for waste management in the future," Konwar said.