Structured aerobic mulching pebble and method of making thereof

Abstract

The structured aerobic mulching pebble (100) for potted houseplants (150) is disclosed. The structured aerobic mulching pebble (100) has plurality of 5 intertwined tubular structures (101) of fabric recycled from post-consumer waste clothing. The structured aerobic mulching pebble is three-dimensional, opaque, decorative, porous and a thermal insulator. A method of making the structured aerobic mulching pebble is disclosed. The method includes harmonizing (201) the post-consumer waste clothing and deconstructing (203) it into two-dimensional 10 fabric strips. The method further includes structuring (205) the two-dimensional fabric strip into a three-dimensional aerobic mulching pebble (100) and is free of re-dyeing, colourants, and chemical processing.

Description

[0001]STRUCTURED AEROBIC MULCHING PEBBLE AND METHOD OF MAKING THEREOF TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to mulching pebble, more particularly, relates to mulching pebble made for potted houseplants from pre-coloured fabric recycled from post-consumer waste clothing without any colourants, re-dyeing or chemical processing. BACKGROUND Potted houseplant soil is regularly exposed to light, leading to weed growth. Additionally, the soil's upper surface experiences temperature changes, causing daily shocks to the plant's root zone. Water evaporation from the soil surface leads to water wastage and unmet plant nutrient demands. Mulching is the process or practice of covering the soil / ground to make more favourable conditions for plant growth, development, and efficient crop production. Mulch technical term means ‘covering of soil’. While natural mulches such as leaf, straw, dry leaves, stone pebbles, and compost have been used for centuries, during the last 60 years the advent of synthetic materials has altered the methods and benefits of mulching. Commercial mulching solutions like plastic films based on different types of polymers have been evaluated for mulching. LDPE, HDPE and flexible PVC have been used. When compared to other mulches plastic mulches are completely impermeable to oxygen, air, and water; it therefore prevents direct evaporation of moisture from the soil and thus limits the water losses and soil erosion over the surface. However, these plastic mulches are designed for open crop fields and large grounds and are impractical for use in houseplants planted in small pots typically found in homes. Further, the plastic mulches have a high probability of ‘burning’ or ‘scorching’ of the young plants due to high temperature created under black plastic film, weed penetration under semi-transparent thin plastic films and maybe toxic to livestock. Existing houseplant mulching may require environmentally harmful processes for artificial colouring. Existing mulching stone pebbles are completely impermeable to oxygen, air and water and block aerobic nutrient breakdown processes in the soil underneath. To resolve the above-identified drawbacks, there is a need for ecofriendly, moisture retaining, soil fertility enhancing mulch for potted houseplants. SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE In an aspect of the present disclosure provides structured aerobic mulching pebble for potted houseplants. This structured aerobic mulching pebble has a plurality of intertwined tubular structures of recycled fabric strip from post- consumer waste clothing. In another aspect, the present disclosure provides a method for making the structured aerobic mulching pebble from post-consumer waste clothing. The method includes includes harmonizing the post-consumer waste clothing, deconstructing the harmonized post-consumer waste clothing into two-dimensional fabric strips, and structuring the two-dimensional fabric strip into three-dimensional structured aerobic mulching pebble. The structured aerobic mulching pebble is free of re-dyeing, colourants, and chemical processing. In yet another aspect, the present disclosure provides a structured mulching pebble wherein a surface of the structured aerobic mulching pebble comprises a decorative dominant colour and a visual colour-burst pattern, wherein the controllable properties of the input two-dimensional waste fabric and the controllable properties of the three-dimensional structure combine to create the following illustrative set of controllable three-dimensional properties, namely opacity, low density, high specific surface area, porosity, absorbency and thermal insulation. In yet another aspect, the present disclosure provides a structured aerobic mulching pebble having versatile usability, without limitation application as a functional decorative aerobic mulching pebble in office and home for indoor and outdoor potted houseplants and for outdoor flowers and vegetable beds. In yet another aspect, the present disclosure provides a carbon-negative, climate-positive, and climate-adaptive structured aerobic mulching pebble made of materials recycled from post-consumer waste. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present disclosure will become better understood when the following description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings wherein. Figure 1a: illustrates a structured aerobic mulching pebble. Figure 1b: illustrates a structured aerobic mulching pebble in a potted houseplant. Figure 2: illustrates a flow chart for method of making aerobic mulching pebble. Figure 3: illustrates a flow chart for harmonizing the post-consumer waste clothing. Figure 4: illustrates intertwined tubular loop structure. DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE For promoting an understanding of the principles of disclosure, reference will now be made to the embodiments in the specific language and will be used to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the disclosure is thereby intended, such alterations and further modifications in the illustrated process, and such further applications of the principles of the disclosure as illustrated therein being contemplated as would normally occur to one skilled in the art to which the disclosure relates. Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skilled in the art to which this disclosure belongs. The composition, formulation, methods, and examples provided herein are illustrative only and not intended to be limiting. The articles “a”, “an” and “the” are used to refer to one or to more than one (i.e., to at least one) of the grammatical object of the article. The terms “comprise” and “comprising” are used in the inclusive, open sense, meaning that additional elements may be included. It is not intended to be construed as “consists of only”. Throughout this specification, unless the context requires otherwise the word “comprise”, and variations such as “comprises” and “comprising”, will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element or step or group of element or steps but not the exclusion of any other element or step or group of element or steps. The term “carbon negative” or “climate positive” means that the amount of emissions released into the atmosphere. Being carbon negative also means being climate positive, i.e. having a positive impact on the climate. The term “post-consumer waste clothing” means the waste resulting from the finished product reaching the end of its useful life for the consumer. The term “pre-consumer waste textile” means the waste material before it reaches to consumer or is a material that was discarded before it was ready for consumer use or is produced while items are being manufactured. The term “mulching” includes the process of covering the open surface of the soil by a layer of some external material. The term “mulch” includes the material used for covering the open surface of the soil. Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. Although any methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of the disclosure, the preferred methods and materials are now described. All publications mentioned herein are incorporated herein by reference. A structured aerobic mulching pebble (100) is structured with plurality of intertwined tubular structures (101) and scrunched two-dimensional fabric strip, developed from post-consumer waste clothing. Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying figures. As shown in Fig 1a, in an embodiment, the present disclosure provides the structured aerobic mulching pebble (100) made from post-consumer waste clothing. The structured aerobic mulching pebble has a plurality of intertwined tubular structures (101) having recycled fabric strip from post-consumer waste clothing. As shown in Fig 1b, in an embodiment, the present disclosure provides the structured aerobic mulching pebble for potted houseplants (150). A layer of aerobic mulching pebbles (153) with a minimum diameter of 10 mm is positioned on top of the soil in a pot (155) having the plants. As shown in Fig 2, in another embodiment, the present disclosure provides the method (200) for making the structured aerobic mulching pebble. The method includes harmonizing (201) the post-consumer waste clothing, deconstructing (203) the harmonized post-consumer waste clothing into two-dimensional fabric strip, structuring (205) the deconstructed two-dimensional fabric strip into a three- dimensional structured aerobic mulching pebble, and sorting and storing (207) the structured pebble based on their dominant colour. As shown in Fig 3, in still another embodiment, the present disclosure provides the sorting of post-consumer waste clothing based on the type of cloth includes sorting into different categories including sarees, salwar kameez, shirts, pants, and the like. Storing the sorted clothing by type of cloth (301) in “I” sorted bins. The “I” sorted cloths, which is sorted by its type, are Further sorted based on the composition of the fabric (303). The composition of fabric includes categories cotton, silk, denim, wool, linen, jute, polyester, velvet, rayon, and the like and stored in the “F”: sorted bins. The waste clothing stored in “F” sorted bins are further sorted based on the dominant colour (305), the “C” bins are 6 to 256 number of bins. As shown in Fig 4, in still another embodiment, the present disclosure provides an intertwined tubular loop structure (400). The intertwined tubular loop structure has a first joined end (401) and a second end (403). The tubular loop structure is intertwined at the second loop end (403) of the tubular loop structure along a longitudinal axis keeping the first joined end (401) stationary. In an embodiment, the structured aerobic mulching pebble (100) has a plurality of intertwined tubular structures (101) having recycled fabric strip from post-consumer waste clothing. The structured aerobic mulching pebble (100) is three-dimensional, opaque, porous, and a thermal insulator. The structured aerobic mulching pebble (100) has a decorative dominant colour and a colour-burst visual pattern on its structured surface. The colour burst visual pattern has innumerable tiny bursts of accent colours dispersed in the dominant colour. In another embodiment, the present disclosure provides a method (200) for making the aerobic mulching pebble from the post-consumer waste clothing strip, involves intertwining a two-dimensional fabric strip into three-dimensional mulching pebble. The method (200) of making the structured aerobic mulching pebble includes harmonizing (201) the post-consumer waste clothing. Post-consumer waste clothing includes garments and wearables of different sizes, constituent fabric materials, patterns, and colours, where harmonizing is carried out by sorting (Fig 3) the post-consumer waste clothing. In an embodiment, the present disclosure provides deconstructing (203) the harmonised post-consumer waste clothing (305) involves cutting the sorted post- consumer waste clothing into two-dimensional fabric strips. Each waste clothing from the same colour family bin is cut separately into two-dimensional fabric strip of “W” minimum width of 5 mm and “L” minimum length of 100 mm. In another embodiment, the present disclosure provides structuring (205) the deconstructed two-dimensional fabric strip into a three-dimensional structured aerobic mulching pebble (100). The structuring (205) involves folding the two- dimensional fabric strip inwards along a width and entire length, twisting the folded two-dimensional fabric strip. Folding in half the twisted two-dimensional fabric strip along the length and joining the two ends of twisted two-dimensional fabric strip to obtain a tubular loop structure having a first joined end (401) and a second loop end (403), followed by intertwining the second loop end (403) of the tubular loop structure along a longitudinal axis keeping the first joined end (401) is stationary and repeating the steps folding in half the twisted two-dimensional fabric strip, joining the two ends of twisted two-dimensional fabric strip, and intertwining the tubular loop structure to obtain a short, bulky pebble shaped structure. Eventually scrunching the intertwined pebble shaped structure into three- dimensional structured aerobic mulching pebble (100). and followed by storing the structured aerobic mulching pebble (100) into its output bin. The present disclosure provides a process control parameter to generate structured aerobic mulching pebble (100). One such parameter “F” is the choice of recycled material based on the composition of the fabric (303) of post-consumer waste clothing. The composition of fabric includes categories cotton, silk, denim, wool, linen, jute, polyester, velvet, rayon, and the like. The process control parameters are as follows: i) Deconstructing parameters: ‘W’ - width of strip cut from the post-consumer waste clothing, ‘L’ - length of strip cut from the post-consumer waste clothing. ii) Scrunching parameters: ‘T’ - number of twists, ‘F’ - number of folds. The structured aerobic mulching pebble layer shields the soil from direct sunlight, protects it from extreme temperatures, conserves moisture, enhances soil fertility and health, discourages weed growth, boosts the visual attractiveness of the potted plant, and complements home decoration.

Claims

AIM:

1. A structured aerobic mulching pebble (100) for potted houseplants (150), the mulching pebble comprising: a plurality of intertwined tubular structures (101) comprising fabric strip, wherein the fabric strip is recycled from post- consumer waste clothing, wherein a surface of the structured aerobic mulching pebble comprises a decorative dominant colour and a visual colour-burst pattern, wherein the structured aerobic mulching pebble is three-dimensional, opaque, porous, and thermal insulator, wherein the structured aerobic mulching pebble is free of re-dyeing, colourants, and chemical processing.

2. The structured aerobic mulching pebble (100) as claimed in claim 1, has a decorative dominant colour and a colour-burst visual pattern on a surface, wherein the colour-burst visual pattern comprises tiny bursts of accent colours dispersed in the dominant colour.

3. A method (200) for making a structured aerobic mulching pebble (100) from post-consumer waste clothing, the method comprising: harmonizing (201) post-consumer waste clothing wherein the post-consumer waste clothing comprises garments and wearables of different sizes, constituent fabric materials, patterns and colours; deconstructing (203) the harmonized post-consumer waste clothing into two-dimensional fabric strip; and structuring (205) the deconstructed two-dimensional fabric strip into a three-dimensional structured aerobic mulching pebble (100), wherein a surface of the structured aerobic mulching pebble comprises a visual pattern and a dominant colour.

4. The method (200) as claimed in claim 3, wherein the harmonizing (201) comprises: sorting the post-consumer waste clothing according to a type of the waste clothing (301); storing the sorted post-consumer waste clothing based on the type of the waste clothing in “I” sorted bins; sorting the post-consumer waste clothing according to a composition of the waste clothing (303) from the I sorted bins ; storing the sorted post-consumer waste clothing based on the composition of the waste clothing in “F” sorted bins; sorting the post-consumer waste clothing based on a dominant colour of the waste clothing (305) from F sorted bins; and storing the sorted post-consumer waste clothing based on the dominant colour of the waste clothing in “C” sorted bins.

5. The method (200) as claimed in claim 4, wherein the “C” bins comprise n number of bins, wherein n is 6 to 256.

6. The method (200) as claimed in claim 3, wherein the deconstructing (203) the sorted post-consumer waste clothing based on dominant colours comprises cutting the sorted post-consumer waste clothing from the “C” sorted bins into the two-dimensional fabric strip.

7. The method (200) as claimed in claim 3, wherein the two-dimensional fabric strip has a minimum width of 5 mm and minimum length of 100 mm.

8. The method (200) as claimed in claim 3, wherein the structuring (205) the two-dimensional fabric strip into a three-dimensional structured aerobic mulching pebble (100) comprises:folding the two-dimensional fabric strip inwards along a width and entire length; twisting the folded two-dimensional fabric strip ; folding in half the twisted two-dimensional fabric strip along the length and joining the two ends of twisted two-dimensional fabric strip to obtain a tubular loop structure having a first joined end (401) and a second loop end (403); intertwining the second loop end (403) of the tubular loop structure along a longitudinal axis keeping the first joined end (401) stationary; repeating the folding in half, joining, and intertwining the tubular loop structure to obtain a pebble shaped structure, wherein the pebble shaped structure is short and bulky; friction-knotting and locking the two ends of the fabric strip within the pebble shaped structure to obtain tightly intertwined pebble shaped structure; scrunching the intertwined pebble shaped structure into three- dimensional structured aerobic mulching pebble (100); and sorting and storing (207) the structured aerobic mulching pebble based on the dominant colour.

Images