Preparation of compost from fruit and vegetable waste

Iqbal, K. . Centre for Environmental Studies; Shafiq, T. . Centre for Environmental Studies; Nadeem, A.

Preparation of compost from fruit and vegetable waste

2007

Iqbal, K. (Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Lab. Complex, Lahore (Pakistan). Centre for Environmental Studies) | Shafiq, T. (Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Lab. Complex, Lahore (Pakistan). Centre for Environmental Studies) | Nadeem, A. (Government Coll. Univ., Faisalabad (Pakistan))

Solid waste management is a problem of major relevance for all societies. Finding acceptable strategies to cope with such a problem is becoming quite a hard task, owing to the increasing awareness of environmental issues by population and authorities. To co-op with this problem, present study was conducted. The annual municipal solid waste collected from Lahore contained on average 87.31 % organic matter, 3.89% stone, 1.46% wood, 1.58% polythene, 2.97% paper, 2.05% straw and 0.92% cloth and proximate analysis of organic mat-ter indicated average 2.0% protein, 9.1% ash, 76.6% moisture, 9.2% fat and 3.1% fiber. In this study organic waste of fruit and vegetable was collected, segregated and composted in a lab scale composter. Before composting the concentration of carbon ranged between 28.0 to 33.5 % and nitrogen 1.20 to 1.29% but after composting C ranges 19 to 26.5% and N 1.9 to 2.3%. The C/N before composting was 23 to 27 and after composting it were 9 to 15. The C/N decreased after composting due to the utilization of C and N by microbes. On the other hand the concentration of P, K and Fe ranged between 0.14 to 0.18%, 1.12 to 1.6% and 440 to 451 mg/kg before composting and after composting these values were as 0.26 to 0.30%, 1.58 to 1.64%, and 675 to 684 mg/kg respectively. Reduction in pollution threat to environment due to huge piling of organic waste is an extra benefit.

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