Bioconversion of Vegetable and Flower Wastes into Compost by Eudrilus euginae Treated with Food Colouring Agent Tartrazine

Abstract

Waste materials in recent years have been increasing day by day and it is a major threat to the environmental issue. To solve the problem in one way, the waste materials are utilized in a fruitful way by using Eudrilus eugeniae. The vegetable and flower waste were subjected to vermicompost separately and along with tartrazine treatment. In these treatments, the vermicompost materials were analysed the micro and macro nutrients to understand the impact of tartrazine on the bioconversion of waste into compost. The Nitrogen level was increased in the flower waste compost by 28.5% whereas it was decreased in the vegetable waste by 28.6%. Similarly, the decreasing trend of Phosphorus was observed in both the compost. Besides Nitrogen and Phosphorus, the Potassium showed significant increase in all the treatments. However, insignificant changes of Zinc, Manganese and Copper were observed in the compost of flower and vegetable waste. In the case of Ferrous, significant increase was observed. The physical properties such as the Electrical Conductivity (EC) and pH of the vermicompost showed almost equal to the control. On the Basis of observation, the nutrients of the compost of waste have been stabilized by the earthworm, E. eugeniae.