Co‐composting of Municipal Solid Waste with Sawdust: Improving Compost Quality

Abstract

The aim of present study was to improve compost quality as well as to achieve an optimum C/N ratio in compost, reduction in heavy metal content and increased water‐holding capacity of composting piles in arid areas. Four windrow compost piles were prepared by mixing sawdust at various dosages with municipal solid waste (MSW). The sawdust was mixed with MSW at 0% (MSW0), 16% (MSW16), 32% (MSW32), and 70% (MSW70) on dry weight basis. The compost piles were monitored daily by recording the temperature, while, weekly measurement was done on C/N ratio, moisture, pH, and electrical conductivity (EC). The addition of 16% sawdust increased the initial C/N to the optimum level and decreased N loss during the composting process. The MSW16 and MSW32 exhibited better temperature dynamics and their composting period seemed to be shorter than that of MSW0 and MSW70. Moreover, addition of sawdust caused lowering of moisture loss from the composting piles. Sawdust admixtures also produced lowering of pH and EC values and led to lower heavy metal content in final products. The quality of the final compost makes it possible to propose the use of this experimental procedure for building up a novel mass reduction of the initial composted waste mixtures.

Transformation of Nutrients and Organic Matter in Vermicomposting of Sewage Sludge and Kitchen Wastes

“…The pH of the compost was 6.6, being lower than in the case of the vermicompost made from kitchen wastes. This is in agreement with the results obtained by Yousefi et al (2013): in this study sawdust admixtures also produced lowering of pH in final products. …”

“…Recently a detailed study performed by Yousefi, Younesi and Ghasempoury (2013) resulted in that the mixture of one waste high in carbon and low in nitrogen (sawdust) with another waste that is high in nitrogen (municipal solid waste, MSW) makes it possible to obtain an optimum C:N ratio for composting, increase water preservation and improve the final quality of the compost product. The composting piles with sawdust required shorter composting periods than those without any sawdust.…”

Microbial consortium culture and vermi-composting technologies for recycling on-farm wastes and food production

“…Composting is the technology for conversion of bulky organic wastes into low volume nutrient-enriched and stable product (Yousefi et al 2013;Kharrazi et al 2014). Traditional composting (farmers' practices of heaping straw and dung) is very time consuming and relatively less effective.…”

Assessment of co-composting of sludge and woodchips in the perspective of environmental impacts (EASETECH)

“…Co-composting of municipal sludge and other materials, including municipal solid waste (Lu et al, 2009), saw dust (Yousefi et al, 2013), and food industry waste (Ammari et al, 2012), is therefore promising given their complementary characteristics. Garden waste, which normally has loose structure, low water content, and high C/N ratio, is widely applied in co-composting with sludge (Albrecht et al, 2010;El Fels et al, 2014).…”