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Sustainable household organic waste management via vermicomposting

Increasing waste generation in developing countries has alarmed authorities on waste disposal issues. Therefore, various alternatives have been looked into to reduce waste disposed into landfill. Among others are the bioremediation options which may allow the conversion of putrescible wastes into va...

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Main Authors:	Fauziah, Shahul Hamid, Agamuthu, Pariatamby
Format:	Article
Published:	Faculty of Science, University of Malaya 2009
Subjects:	QH301 Biology
Online Access:	http://eprints.um.edu.my/4989/ http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-69549135850&partnerID=40&md5=70b1630aed980d13c57b5e8311b023dc
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spelling	my.um.eprints.49892021-04-28T06:48:38Z http://eprints.um.edu.my/4989/ Sustainable household organic waste management via vermicomposting Fauziah, Shahul Hamid Agamuthu, Pariatamby QH301 Biology Increasing waste generation in developing countries has alarmed authorities on waste disposal issues. Therefore, various alternatives have been looked into to reduce waste disposed into landfill. Among others are the bioremediation options which may allow the conversion of putrescible wastes into value added products such as compost, biogas and others. This study was aimed to find optimal experimental set-up to conduct small scale vermicomposting suitable for households, since approximately 40-50% (wt) of the waste is putrescible component. The wastes were weighed and exposed to worms namely Eisenia foetida. Results indicated that household putrescible waste can easily undergo vermicomposting. However, factors such as high acidity and presence of certain materials in the waste can be detrimental to this process. Worms are very sensitive to pH changes and the vermicomposting process will reduce drastically when pH is lower than 5.0. Experimental set-up with the layering system proved to be the best method of conducting small scale vermicomposting. The layering set-up prevents worms from escaping the vermicomposting system and allows the gathering of the offspring in a safe environment. Different combinations of organic mixture resulted with different rate of vermicomposting completion. The fastest to degrade was the combination of kitchen waste with vermicompost, which come to completion within three weeks. Vermicompost provides the most suitable environment for the worms to flourish in addition to the availability of less complex components in kitchen waste. The average water holding capacity of the vermicompost was 25% (wt) while the total organic content was 12%. In conclusion, vermicomposting of organic components found in the MSW stream can be accomplished by taking into consideration crucial factors such as acidity and presence of hindering components. The identification of the most suitable conditions for vermicomposting will allow the implementation of this alternative biological remedy to reduce waste and tackle the problem in waste management, particularly in developing countries. Faculty of Science, University of Malaya 2009 Article PeerReviewed Fauziah, Shahul Hamid and Agamuthu, Pariatamby (2009) Sustainable household organic waste management via vermicomposting. Malaysian Journal of Science, 28 (2). pp. 135-142. ISSN 1394-3065 http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-69549135850&partnerID=40&md5=70b1630aed980d13c57b5e8311b023dc
institution	Universiti Malaya
building	UM Library
collection	Institutional Repository
continent	Asia
country	Malaysia
content_provider	Universiti Malaya
content_source	UM Research Repository
url_provider	http://eprints.um.edu.my/
topic	QH301 Biology
spellingShingle	QH301 Biology Fauziah, Shahul Hamid Agamuthu, Pariatamby Sustainable household organic waste management via vermicomposting
description	Increasing waste generation in developing countries has alarmed authorities on waste disposal issues. Therefore, various alternatives have been looked into to reduce waste disposed into landfill. Among others are the bioremediation options which may allow the conversion of putrescible wastes into value added products such as compost, biogas and others. This study was aimed to find optimal experimental set-up to conduct small scale vermicomposting suitable for households, since approximately 40-50% (wt) of the waste is putrescible component. The wastes were weighed and exposed to worms namely Eisenia foetida. Results indicated that household putrescible waste can easily undergo vermicomposting. However, factors such as high acidity and presence of certain materials in the waste can be detrimental to this process. Worms are very sensitive to pH changes and the vermicomposting process will reduce drastically when pH is lower than 5.0. Experimental set-up with the layering system proved to be the best method of conducting small scale vermicomposting. The layering set-up prevents worms from escaping the vermicomposting system and allows the gathering of the offspring in a safe environment. Different combinations of organic mixture resulted with different rate of vermicomposting completion. The fastest to degrade was the combination of kitchen waste with vermicompost, which come to completion within three weeks. Vermicompost provides the most suitable environment for the worms to flourish in addition to the availability of less complex components in kitchen waste. The average water holding capacity of the vermicompost was 25% (wt) while the total organic content was 12%. In conclusion, vermicomposting of organic components found in the MSW stream can be accomplished by taking into consideration crucial factors such as acidity and presence of hindering components. The identification of the most suitable conditions for vermicomposting will allow the implementation of this alternative biological remedy to reduce waste and tackle the problem in waste management, particularly in developing countries.
format	Article
author	Fauziah, Shahul Hamid Agamuthu, Pariatamby
author_facet	Fauziah, Shahul Hamid Agamuthu, Pariatamby
author_sort	Fauziah, Shahul Hamid
title	Sustainable household organic waste management via vermicomposting
title_short	Sustainable household organic waste management via vermicomposting
title_full	Sustainable household organic waste management via vermicomposting
title_fullStr	Sustainable household organic waste management via vermicomposting
title_full_unstemmed	Sustainable household organic waste management via vermicomposting
title_sort	sustainable household organic waste management via vermicomposting
publisher	Faculty of Science, University of Malaya
publishDate	2009
url	http://eprints.um.edu.my/4989/ http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-69549135850&partnerID=40&md5=70b1630aed980d13c57b5e8311b023dc
_version_	1698697298601574400
score	13.211869

Sustainable household organic waste management via vermicomposting

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