Garbage Enzyme: Go Natural, Reduce Wastage and Save the Earth

My first encounter with garbage enzyme was when I stayed a while with an aunty and saw her made enzyme and used it to mop the floor. At that time, I didn’t know about garbage enzymes and thought it’s interesting that an aunty in her fifties know how to make natural detergent. I vaguely remembered she said she learnt this from her relative.

Many years later after that encounter, with more slots of time in between while I worked as a freelancer for me to think, explore and discover, I decided to experiment with making my own natural detergent. I wanted to do something which can be good for myself as well as for the environment. I decided to test out the process and made a small amount of enzyme. My first experiment failed as I randomly took a container which was too small and not air-tight. During fermentation, due to the gas built up, the cap opened and the liquid flowed out. Several months later after the failed attempt, I decided to give it another try, this time going through the details of the process of making garbage enzymes carefully, following the steps closely.

Garbage Enzyme Poster: How to make garbage enzym

Garbage Enzyme Poster: How to make garbage enzyme

This time round, my experiment succeeded. I used a small container that is air-tight, with a small amount of orange peels to make the enzyme. The enzyme has an orangey acidic smell which I like.

I tried using vegetable peels and fruit peels such as banana peels, star fruit peels and apple peels and they are still in the process of fermentation. However, once in a while when l open the containers to get rid of fermentation gases, I gave a sniff and those other containers didn’t give as nice a smell as orange peels, especially those with vegetables. It seems that orange peels give the nicest smell during fermentation.

Also as I ran out of brown sugar while I was making some batches of the enzymes, I replaced with white sugar. Some websites say that white sugar can be used while others say they can’t be used. I’ll check what will be the results after a minimum 3 months’ fermentation period to see if white sugar can work.

As my first batch of enzyme was ready, I decided to test out its usage two days ago. Recently, my kitchen was infested with cockroaches nymphs, and these nymphs like to find their way into our water kettle. I read that garbage enzyme can deter cockroaches, so decided to place some enzyme in a small bottle in my cupboard and also one near my water kettle. Surprise! The nymphs went into the bottles of enzyme and drowned in the enzymes after one night. I’m not exactly sure if the sweetish acidic liquid attracted the nymphs because those are food for the nymphs, but as the nymphs had no way of getting away from the acidic enzymes after getting into them, those bottles of enzymes help me gotten rid of several nymphs.

Bottle enzyme with cockroaches nymphs

Bottle enzyme with drowned cockroaches nymphs