Does anyone know any method for composting of municipal Solid waste? Can the 100% of the waste prepare good compost? Or does some % mixture of other organic waste need to be added?Do you know about papers related with this issue? Thanks in advance. Regards, SINDOR.
Dear Sindor:
At Universidad del Valle in Cali - Colombia, we have been working on composting of MSW, we had publicated some of our results. Some suggestions:
- Separation at the Source is mandatory; it improves the processs and product quality; in our expeiency, it reduces in 19 days, the process time. I attached one publication
- it is necessary that you characterizate your wastes; i.e in our case we find a sustrate with high N, but low C. It´s so different respect reserch findings in other countries.
- We have some publication using amendment or support material, if you like, I can sent it to you.
Dear Dr. Pardaev,
In non-sorting MSW, you get metal, glass, paper, food waste, etc. If you compost these ingredients all together, you are going to get them in your compost. For example, trace metals will concentrate in your compost as your organic matter will be used by compost microorganisms. The trace metal concentrations may be harmful to the environment. Where do you want to use this compost?
You need to do source separation of metal, glass, paper, etc. If you can get only food wastes, then the environmental quality of your compost will be improved.
MSW are also reach in water. Most of the time, you need to add a structuring agent. The methods of Beltsville or Rutgers are used to understand the challenges and can be found on Internet.
-United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and United States Environmental
Protection agency (EPA). 1980. Manual for composting sewage sludge by the
Beltsville aerated-pile method. EPA-600/8-80-022. USEPA, Washington, D.C.
-USEPA. 1986. The Rutgers strategy for composting: Process design and control.
EPA/600/2-85/059. USEPA, Washington, D.C.
Good luck,
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