“It is possible to grow your own organic vegetables in your own concrete balcony using homemade compost. You don’t need acres of land.” Three years ago, when the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) asked a Mahadevpura-based society to stop generating wet waste, there was a wave of mild panic among its 200-odd residents. While all of them were segregating their waste, very few knew about or even practised composting. But Shilpa Maheshwari and Nitin Sinha rose to the challenge and decided to take this opportunity to move towards a healthier future. “Due to the lack of equipment for community composting, I started my experiments with composting, using methods like storing the used vegetable waste etc. from the kitchen and making compost out of it,” Shilpa (38), an entrepreneur tells The Better India. Over a period of time, the experiments translated into developing a nutrient-rich compost. The high volume of compost generated every month gave Shilpa the idea to use it as an organic fertiliser to grow vegetables.