A sustainable approach for processing organic waste in India

Abstract

There are about 3430 million poultry populations in India, with a waste generation of 3.30 million tons per year. India is the world's third-largest egg producer and the fourth-largest broiler chicken producer, and Tamil Nadu plays a significant role in poultry egg and meat production. As the poultry hub of Tamil Nadu, Namakkal has been struggling to manage these wastes dumped in open areas by the poultry farms and small industrial units in recent years. The dumping of Bio-organic waste like chicken feathers and chicken intestines in the municipal solid waste landfill creates an unpleasant odor, environmental contamination, and various health issues. These organic wastes can be recycled through composting as a sustainable approach to waste management. In this study, discarded chicken waste from the poultry units and slaughterhouses in and around the Namakkal was collected and mixed with other organic manure like cow dung, rice husk, and tea powder in various proportions to generate organic compost. The composting process has been carried out in-vessel composters for 40 days by both aerobic and anaerobic methods at the lab scale. The parameters such as C: N ratio, pH, Organic matter, Dry matter, Moisture content, and NPKvalues are analyzed for aerobic and anaerobic processes. It is found that the C: N ratio is optimum in aerobic compost compared to anaerobic compost. Also, it is observed that the aerobic compost had a positive influence on the plant growth, i.e., okra (ladies finger) seedlings, then the anaerobic compost. The study indicates that the addition of external agents is required for the complete and rapid degradation of chicken feathers due to fiber-rich keratin. Thus, the present study will effectively reduce the potential hazards of chicken waste disposal through the proposed sustainable approach.