Environmental Impacts of Farm Waste Treatment Methods and Perspectives of Valorization by Composting: The Case of the Farm “Société de Provenderies du Cameroun (SPC)” of Foumbot

Abstract

Waste recovery is an environmental, agronomic and economic asset. The farm “Société de Provenderies du Cameroun” (SPC) processes its wastes by incineration and landfill. During this study, environmental impacts of these two treatment methods were assessed in this farm and a composting experiment was also conducted. For the experiment, chicken carcasses and droppings mixed with wood shavings, straw, incineration ash, egg shells and cattle dung were distributed differently in four experimental composters C1, C2, C3 and C4 with the same starting weight. C1 consisted of the first three waste types, for C2, C3 and C4 a new waste was added in the order they are listed above. The results show that the major impacts associated with the incineration and landfilling of SPC waste are the degradation of the health of workers and surrounding populations, the occurrence of conflicts, and the pollution of the air, soil and groundwater of the site. As far as composting is concerned, the characteristics of three of the four composts obtained are usable as soil fertilisers. Indeed, at the end of the experiment, the pH of the four composters was basic (8), the temperature values were between 24°C and 34°C and the humidity values were between 37% and 41%. However, the last parameter, the C/N ratio, was not satisfactory for C1 (13.42), which eliminated it from mature and ready-to-use composts according to FAO standards. The C/N ratios of C2 (15.71), C3 (16.30), and C4 (18) composters were found to be good for mature and ready-to-use compost.