After our Bangalore scavenger hunt, we visited the Akshaya Patra facility and learned about alternative ways to dispose of food waste.
After our scavenger hunt of the sights in Bangalore, we met Mainak, the owner of Green Power Systems for lunch at the Parade Cafe, where we ate delicious spicy Indian food. I was going to take a picture of my meal to share with you, but I couldn't pull myself away from it long enough to grab the camera. Sorry, it was just too good!
Mainak talked about his path to creating Green Power Systems, a company that takes food waste and turns it into methane for cooking in the very kitchen that produced the waste.
We were able to visit one of the sites that uses this system, the Akshaya Patra facility, where Vikash, the chief biotechnology officer, showed us the process. The Akshaya Patra facility makes all the free lunches for elementary school kids in Bangalore. The waste from preparation, as well as the leftovers, are ground up and put into a tank with bacteria that eats it and produces methane.
This process reduces the volume of compost that needs to be removed from the facility and creates a more potent fertilizer. To top it off, the Akshaya Patra facility no longer needs to buy gas to cook with, so it's able to make lunches every day for as little $28 per year for each student.
I can't wait to see what they have planned for us tomorrow!
