In the absence of agricultural fields,or perhaps because of that,a school in Delhi is revisiting its kitchen dustbins,newspapers and musty corners. Far from climate-change and sustainable waste management rhetoric,DTEA School,Moti Bagh,has found use for old newspapers and kitchen waste: growing mushrooms on the mulch,in the shady corners in the school,from what started as an eco-club experiment. Some of the students,experts with two years of experience,have even started growing mushrooms at home. It was only fitting then that at an ongoing eco-meet for 2,000 school-based eco clubs in Delhi on Thursday,they doled out mushroom soup to other students. We started this project hoping to utilise the waste that a space like a school creates: like plastic bags,newspapers and kitchen waste. We started growing mushrooms on newspaper scraps and kitchen waste in 2007. It was a success, said Geeta Arunachalam,a teacher at the school. The students have crop details on their fingertips: One batch of mushroom seeds can be harvested three times after breaking the stems. We grow them on hay or newspapers or kitchen waste, said Himanshu Rawat,a Class XI student. Rawat has more than school experience to share: he even grows mushrooms in a dark corner in his home. What started as stinky and smelly is now a novel experience. Arvind Sahu,another Class XI student,drops big words easily: Its easy for the mycelium-or the sporesto spread if the base that you make is moist and in a dark space. Once the mycelium spreads,it takes 21 days for fruition. And you can break the heads three time before the fungus dies meaning you get several packets go of the crop at one, Sahu said. Other schools have started following the example of utilising their waste. Since 2007,30 other schools in the Capital,including Sanskriti School,DPS International,and notably several government-run schools,have taken training to grow their own mushrooms. It started as a waste management programme,but has become so much more than that. We have served mushroom sandwiches and mushroom soup in our school several times. The final base on which we grow the mushrooms which is left over becomes very light and can be used for compost, Arunachalam said. Thats called an opportunity mushrooming.
