Quality Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste Compost

Abstract There are more than 522 towns and cities in Bangladesh, which generate thousands of tons of solid waste known as Municipal Solid Waste. Low collection coverage and disposal facilities are responsible for unsatisfactory waste management. The composting technology is a good alternative method for managing MSW. The present study was conducted to assess the quality of the MSW compost produced from the solid wastes of Mymensingh Pourashava. For quality assessment physical, chemical and biological properties of prepared compost namelye bulk density, porosity, water-holding capacity, moisture content, pH, organic matter content, C:N ratio, NPKS content, buffering capacity, soluble salts content, heavy metal content and the presence of harmful organisms in the MSW compost were studied. The results indicated that the MSW compost was matured and stable having pH 7.3 and buffering capacity of the MSW compost were good but the organic matter content and C : N (14.5) ratio were low. The N, P, K and S content of the MSW compost were 0.9, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.45 percent of the total volume. The soluble salts content and heavy metal content of the compost were found to be within the permissible limits. The MSW compost contained no E. coli and Salmonella . From the results, it can be concluded that, the composting could produce acceptable quality of compost, which can be used as fertilizer or soil amendment.