Passive Aerated Composting of Leaves and Predigested Office Papers

Composting studies were conducted in lab scale for 40 days. The substrates of the compost are anaerobically treated palm oil mill effluent (AnPOME), leaves, and paper. The composting process was conducted in cuboid reactor with effective volume of 0.4 m 3 . During composting process, the highest temperature of 43°C was achieved on day 4. The physiochemical analyses were conducted to determine the stability and maturity of the compost. Phytotoxicity experiment was also conducted by using cabbage seed ( Brassica oleracea ) to analyze the maturity of the compost. As a result, the parameters which are moisture content, TOC, and C/N were significantly decreasing. The overall mass reduction was 66% and the organic matter degradation was 72.13%. The germination index of the compost was increasing at the end of the period. It shows that the compost was phytotoxic free. Overall, nutrients in the compost product of this study were in the ideal range but some of the parameters are not in the range to achieve the maturity of the compost.