Physical-Chemical Analysis and Comparison with Standards of the Compost Produced in Sanandaj, Iran

Abstract

Improper disposal of solid waste is one of the main causes of environmental pollution. Converting solid waste into compost and using it as an organic fertilizer in agriculture are an effective waste management method. Quality of such fertilizer may affect both human and environmental health. Therefore, in this study, compost from the compost plant of Sanandaj City was analyzed for its physical-chemical characteristics and the results were compared with the standards. In this descriptive-analytical study, compost samples were collected throughout a 3-month period in spring season at intervals of 15 days (2 samples in each sampling) for chemical analysis. In the present study, parameters such as pH, organic matter, EC, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury and chromium were studied. According to the results, the mean pH, EC, organic matter, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sodium and potassium were 7.657, 8.883 ds/m, 37.793%, 26.46%, 2.50%, 0.424%, 0.685 and 0.67%, respectively. The average concentrations of heavy metals were 0.398, 95, 1.575, <0.5 and 40.275 mg/kg for arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury and chromium, respectively. Results from this study were compared with the standards set for compost. Organic matter content, sodium, arsenic, mercury and chromium were almost within the acceptable ranges. Lead and cadmium concentrations were lower than the standard. But, the values of pH and EC, the percentages of carbon and nitrogen, and also the amounts of phosphorus and potassium were in accordance with the standards. The results of this study show that the quality of the produced compost in the studied plant is almost acceptable.

Assessing Physiochemical Characteristics of Agricultural Waste and Ready Compost at Wadi Al-Far’a Watershed of Palestine

“…There is no specific value provided by the PSI or JSMO [ 49 ]. Yet, good compost quality should have P contents in the range of 0.3–3.5% [ 63 , 75 ], and noticeably, none of the samples in the present study was within this particular range. Al-Sari et al [ 49 ] found that P as PO 4 varied between 0.0 and 0.3% and averaged at 0.15% among 14 compost samples from Palestine.…”

“…Almost six and nine ready compost samples violated the JSMO and WHO standards, respectively. However, good quality compost should have a N content in the range of 0.4–3.5% [ 63 , 75 ]. Accordingly, only two samples (i.e., C4 and C6) of compost produced by farmers exceeded the upper limit.…”

In-vessel co-composting of yard waste and food waste: an approach for sustainable waste management in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

“…All feedstock produced composts with acceptable levels of NPK. Good quality compost should have 0.4-3.5% nitrogen, 0.3-3.5% phosphorus and 0.5-1.8% potassium (Jaafarzadeh Haghighi Fard et al 2015;Sadeghi et al 2015). Addition of EM resulted in production of compost with higher percentages of nitrogen and phosphorus compared to SE.…”