Abstract

MARMOLEJO, Luis Fernando; OVIEDO, Édgar Ricardo; JAIMES, Juan Carlos  and  TORRES, Patricia. Influence of source separation on municipal solid waste composting. Agron. colomb. [online]. 2010, vol.28, n.2, pp.319-328. ISSN 0120-9965.

In Colombia, the recovery and utilization of the putrescible fraction of municipal solid wastes - MSW has increased in recent years. Although composting is the most frequently applied option for this purpose, its effectiveness is limited by incipient source separation (SS) processes. An effective implementation of the latter is expected to render higher operation efficiency and shorter processing times, as well as a reduction in the amount of waste to be deposited in landfills. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of SS on the composting process. In order to achieve this, a laboratory scale test was carried out using separated and non-separated MSW generated in the municipality of La Victoria (Valle del Cauca, Colombia), where there is a solid waste management plant that includes composting for the transformation of putrescible waste. The evaluation included: i) raw material quality, ii) temperature and pH variation during the process, and iii) microbiological quality of the product. The composting of source separated solid waste not only attained higher degradability and better microbiological quality of the product, but also took shorter to reach ambient temperature when compared to non-separated waste.

Keywords : resource recovery; compost; putrescible waste.

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