Co-composting of horticultural waste with fruit peels, food waste, and soybean residues

Abstract

Horticultural waste was co-composted with fruit peels, food waste, and soybean residues individually to evaluate the effects of these easily available organic wastes in Singapore on the composting process and product quality. Each co-composting material was mixed with horticultural waste in the wet weight ratio of 1:1 and composted for 46 days. Results showed that all co-composting materials accelerated the degradation of total carbon and resulted in higher nutrients of nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and potassium (K) in the final product compared with horticultural waste alone. Mixture with fruit peels achieved the fastest total carbon loss; however, did not reach the minimum required temperature for pathogen destruction. The end product was found to be the best source for K and had a higher pH that could be used for the remediation of acidic soil. Food waste resulted in the highest available nitrate (NO3-N) content in the end product, but caused high salt content, total coliforms, and slower total carbon loss initially. Soybean residues were found to be the best co-composting material to produce compost with high N, P, and K when compared with other materials due to the highest temperature, fastest total carbon loss, fastest reduction in C/N ratio, and best conservation of nutrients.

Growth performance of roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) under application of food waste compost and Fe3O4 nanoparticle treatment

“…The concentrations of zinc (Zn) and Fe were 0.59 and 1.62 mg/kg, respectively, across all growing media. Fe content in plant tissues was higher compared with the contents of Cu, Zn, and Pb, which are similar to the results reported by Chiroma et al (2012). This could be due to the high possibility of Fe strategizing its translocation from the growing medium to the plant tissue, mainly on the interaction of ferric chelate reductase, which ended up mostly in the leaf chloroplast (Jeong and Connolly 2009).…”

“…Various factors may, however, contribute to the quality of FW compost as the sources of FW vary by their heterogeneous compositions, sources, and the eating habits of 1 3 consumers (Cerda et al 2018). Several studies have concluded that when FW compost is applied as soil additive, it promotes plant growth and improves biomass and nutrition provision (Choy et al 2015;Ronga et al 2016;Kaur et al 2017). Nevertheless, the quality of the food compost produced depends on various factors, such as moisture content, carbon and nitrogen ratio, aeration, porosity, bulk density, and organic matter (Azim et al 2018;Waqas et al 2018).…”

Increasing the Value of Waste Hop Biomass by Composting: Closing the Nutrient Cycle on Hop Farms

“…The pH of the hop biomass mature compost falls within this range at 7.8, while the pH of the hop biomass input material is around 6.5. Similar increase in pH has been observed in horticultural waste composting, as reported by Choy et al [11]. Despite these general trends, it is important to note that the pH requirements of specific plants may vary [12].…”

Effect of Christmas Island rock phosphate and rice straw compost application on soil phosphorus availability and maize (Zea maysL.) growth in a tropical acid soil of Kelantan, Malaysia

“…In recent decades, compost application is one of the major interesting research subjects due to increasing awareness of waste management (Petrus et al 2010;Choy et al 2015). Therefore, the abundance of agricultural waste such as rice straw (RS) in paddy industry can be effectively transformed and converted into organic fertilizer via the composting process.…”