Home composting of organic waste - part 1: effect of home composter design

Abstract

Worldwide, health and environmental considerations encourage landfill diversion of the organic fraction (OW) of municipal solid wastes, through alternative such as home composting. Of poor sanitation, and trace element and toxic hydrocarbon content (PAH) documentation, this study compared against a laboratory composter (LR), the performance (temperature regime and compost quality) of four 300 to 400 L home composting systems (HC), namely the Plastic (P) and Wood (W) Bins, the Rotary Drum (RD) and the Ground Pile (GP). All were batch loaded with the same food waste (FW) and yard trimmings (YT) mixture for uniform testing. The P and GP performed best in terms of temperature regime, followed by W and LR, while all demonstrated similar dry and organic matter and chemical oxygen demand except for RD with a higher dry matter because of poor aeration. All composts respected regulatory pathogen/parasite counts, trace element and PAH levels.