A Comparison of Two-Stage and Traditional Co-Composting of Green Waste and Food Waste Amended with Phosphate Rock and Sawdust

Abstract

The composting of green waste (GW) proceeds slowly due to the presence of slowly degradable compounds in that substrate. The introduction of amendments and bulking materials can improve organic matter degradation and end-product quality. However, additional strategies such as two-stage composting, can deal with the slow degradation of green waste. This paper evaluates the effect of two-stage composting on the process and end-product quality of the co-composting of green waste and food waste amended with sawdust and phosphate rock. A pilot-scale study was developed using two treatments (in triplicate each), one being a two-stage composting and the other being a traditional composting. The two treatments used the same mixture (wet weight): 46% green waste, 19% unprocessed food waste, 18% processed food waste, 13% sawdust, and 4% phosphate rock. The traditional composting observed a higher degradation rate of organic matter during the mesophilic and thermophilic phases and observed thermophilic temperatures were maintained for longer periods during these two phases compared to two-stage composting (i.e., six days). Nonetheless, during the cooling and maturation phases, the two treatments had similar behaviors with regard to temperature, pH, and electrical conductivity, and the end-products resulting from both treatments did not statistically differ. Therefore, from this study, it is concluded that other additional complementary strategies must be evaluated to further improve GW composting.