Composting – A Waste Management Process

In today’s complicated world where everything is connected (from manufacturing to consumption to disposal), waste management takes on several disposal methods (landfills, incineration, recycling, pyrolysis, etc.) because there is as yet no ideal disposal system.

One of these processes is composting.

Composting 

Composting happens in nature all the time. These days, composting takes on a new meaning as it becomes one additional method of waste disposal under the bigger umbrella of waste management.

Composting is controlling the decomposition of organic matter in a more scientific manner. The product is compost (humus), and is used in gardening and farming (the industrial kind) by mixing it with the soil. This improves the soil quality, soil structure and brings back the nutrients.

Compost or humus is the end-product of decomposed organic matter as performed primarily by microbes, fungi, molds, and other microorganisms. They are helped by larger creatures like the earthworms, ants, snails, millipedes, sow bugs, slugs and others who consume and break down the organic matter.

To encourage the microbes, the compost heap should have the correct mix of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and water. If the heap is too wet, it will block the oxygen needed by the bacteria. If the pile is too dry, the bacteria do not have the moisture to survive and reproduce. Nitrogen is needed for the proteins the microbes need.

Decomposition still works even if some ingredients are missing, but not as quickly as is planned. This mix of biodegradable materials is still capable of being completely broken down from the action of microorganisms into carbon dioxide, water and biomass.

Industrial composting

Together with other advanced processing systems, progressive cities and many urban centers around the world are now installing large-scale composting systems as part of their total urban waste management. In landfills, mechanical sorting of mixed wastes is done along with in-vessel composting called mechanical biological treatment.

Today, biodegradable waste materials are treated before it is dumped into landfills, making it industrial-sized compost pits. This is to help reduce global warming. Untreated materials break down anaerobically and produce gas that includes the greenhouse gas methane.

The size of waste materials is also a significant issue in compostability. Big pieces of wood may not make up for fast composting while saw dust is a good one. Contaminating materials are also dealt with bioremediation and other special composting approaches.

Techniques 

There are two composting techniques – active (hot) and passive (cold) composting.

Active composting allows the most effective decomposing bacteria to flourish, killing most pathogens and seeds, and producing usable compost quickly. This is used by most commercial and industrial composting ventures because not only this ensures a higher quality, it also produces fast results.

Most home composters usually employ the passive kind unconsciously – just throw in everything in there and leave it for about a year or two. Some, of course, are extra-religious in their home composting endeavor – monitoring temperatures, regularly turning the soil, adjusting the heap, etc.)

Community action

Organic materials included in waste sent to landfills produce the dreaded greenhouse gas methane during decomposition. In suburban areas, organic waste materials can be removed from the total stream from the very start – at household levels.

Promoting backyard composting to the community at large can help reduce organic materials (kitchen scraps, other biodegradable materials) thrown out to landfills. This goes a long way in helping decrease the production of greenhouse gases.

What Is Waste Management?

Everyday activities—down from the mundane to the complicated—play a major part in waste production. It is estimated that people produce 4.3 pounds of daily waste individually, and if taken together, they can account for the heaps and tons of produced waste materials each year around the world. In the United States alone, an estimate of 208 millions tons of solid waste is produced every year. That excludes the liquid, gaseous, and other forms of waste materials, which are also considerably high in amount. As the global population booms, waste production is expected to increase in speed and measure, and unless proper waste management is practiced in households, companies, universities, industries, and practically everywhere, Earth will eventually turn into one big garbage planet, where pollution and waste-induced diseases are widespread.

Waste management is essentially the systematic handling of garbage. It involves the proper way of collection, transportation, and disposal of waste materials. Waste management has been a significant issue addressed in the modern and industrialized generation largely owing to the fact that more waste materials are produced today than during the early generations, a critical increase resulting from population explosion and industrial revolution.

While it seems to be a modern response to waste production, waste management is not at all a new practice. Records from all over the world showed that early people had a way of managing and regulating their garbage. One of the common ways of waste management before was digging pits to contain solid wastes. As the civilization progressed, waste management practices became more regulated. As far back as 500 BC, for instance, there were existing policies in Athens Greece that required people to dispose of their waste materials in areas at least one mile from city limits. In 1388, the English Parliament in England banned waste disposal into the water systems. And in 1885, the United States built its first incinerator.

Waste management methods and procedures have improved since then, with emphasis on their relevance to modernity and quantity of produced waste. Incineration, for instance, is still a common process of waste disposal. With the use of incinerators, waste materials are combusted and are converted to energy. This waste-to-energy benefit is proven helpful to many industries, although there have been environmental and health concerns over the creation and emission of dangerous pollutants and chemicals during the burning process.

Using landfills is also a common method of waste disposal. Landfills are basically a big piece of lot where truckloads of waste are gathered and buried. In some countries, using landfills is the most common way of waste disposal primarily because they are relatively cheap and don’t require intricate machineries. Since landfills can potentially attract vermin and emit dangerous landfill gas, landfills have to be well-designed and credibly managed.

Waste management is also targeting to minimize waste, an effort that eventually gave way to the global campaign to recycle. Recycling means reprocessing some or all parts of an item to make a new or completely different product. Scrap metals and papers are two of the most recycled materials today. To date, several people and organizations are committed to recycling, whose collaborated efforts are contributing to proper waste management.