Integrated waste management through symbiotic culture: A holistic approach

Abstract

Unsegregated heterogeneous mass of solid waste is a potential threat towards the safe processing and disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW), which is cumbersome and ancillary, elevates the expenditure. The absence of any pertinent technique, to handle these bulky mass in an eco-friendly way, makes it even more hectic for the MSW processing plants. But, this substantial mass constitutes a huge potential, which can be valorized through the larval digestion of a symbiotic macro culture, to create new economic niches for small-scale entrepreneurship in developing and under-developed nations. The present study incorporates a symbiotic waste reduction system with the efficient functionalism of micro and macro conversion agents which is attributed to the synthesis of waste derived co-products from the same platform. This study is solely a novel approach, which is capable of addressing a wide fraction of solid waste, domestic sewage, and bio-leachate and converts them into value-added co-products within the magnificent period of time. Multiple experiments have been conducted under the controlled feeding environment with an established symbiosis between the BSF larvae, Wax Moth larvae (Galleria melonella), and effective microorganism culture. An initiation period of 5 days was allocated for the macro conversion agents and during the tenure, the larvae were supplied with synthetic diet to accelerate the body growth index. The entire experiments have been conducted in a newly formulated novel bioreactor namely, Integral Larval Grub Composting Reactor which is capable of performing automated pupal segregation and address solid and liquid waste under a single platform. The system enforces the zero liquid discharge concepts and also helps in an indirect suppression of house fly growth. The novel approach only required 14-16 days in order to convert the solid waste into nutrient-rich manure, having significantly high-quality component. The operation has been executed in a number of batch processes and each process valorized a quantity of approx 30 kg. The targeted larval period has been prolonged by means of maintaining higher moisture content with the help of sewage supply and once the maturation period arrives the further addition of moisture has been restricted for 3 days. Overall it’s an ultimate and wholesome biological waste management technique, which is capable of standing solely to strengthen the sustainable waste management strategy.