Properties of composts from household food waste produced in automatic composters

Abstract

The minimization of landfill deposition of waste containing biological components represents a big problem, especially in built-up residential areas. The main problem of biologically degradable municipal waste is the quantity and composition of household waste which can have an important influence on decomposition processes already in collecting vessels. An amount of household waste produced in residential areas in the Czech Republic varies from 31 to 337 g/person/day, with an average value of 250 g. Waste of plant material character is produced in the range from 22 to 291 g/person/day. Composts were prepared in the home composters from household food waste. After the end of the composting process, compost does not have the organic component sufficiently stabilized, which is documented by a high value of electrical conductivity of aqueous leachate reaching more than 4 mS/cm and low humification index. The value of the humification index pronouncedly increased after eight weeks from 0.05 to 0.85, while compost from composting of green waste using windrow system have humification index of 3.48. An aim of this work is the determination of properties of composts prepared from HFW in automatic composters and identification of differences compared with composts prepared from a mixture of biodegradable green waste.

Keywords: Automatic composter; Biological waste; Household food waste; Humification and mineralization indices; Py-GC/MS.