Evaluation of Organic Wastes for Composting

Management of organic wastes is essential to reduce environmental pollution and increase resources of plane nutrients for crop production. This study was undertaken to evaluate major organic wastes produced in northwestern Pakistan for characteristics that are useful for composting. Organic wastes such as manures, municipal wastes (MW), crop residues, fruit/vegetable wastes, and yard wastes contained large reserves of nutrients. Manures had high nitrogen (N) and crop residues had low N. Crop residues were relatively dry (7-12% moisture); MW, poultry manure, sheep manure, leaves, and city garbage were moderately moist (27-47% moisture), whereas cattle manure (CM), fruit and vegetable wastes, and grass clippings were wet (62-89% moisture). The compost developed from mixing MW with CM matured early and had low C/N ratio compared with either source alone. These results suggested that MW could be converted into compost when mixed with CM. The inoculation of wastes with effective microbes (EM) was ineffective in expediting the process of composting.