Potential manure in organic production use: management of municipal organic waste with activators

Abstract

The Tiquipaya Municipality produces 22 t day-1 of solid, 63% of it is organic and 37% is inorganic. This waste is disposed of in the Municipal Landfill, rendering it into an environmental and health threat. In order to diminish the negative effects of poor management of municipal solid waste in Tiquipaya, we have carried out the present study in the Tiquipaya municipal composting site, the municipal nursery and the facilities of the PROINPA foundation. At the beginning, the waste composting was done using two treatments: one with organic activator and the other without it. Later the same two methods were used in worm composting, this second process in turn yielded other four treatments two of which included organic activator. After 64 days, within the compost, the activator achieved to reduce 60.02% of the initial volume, leaving a remaining 39.99% of thick material. After the compost had been processed by the worms it was evaluated on the 47th day, we found that the organic activator treatment used from the beginning of the composting phase, yielded a 90.67% decrease from the initial volume of fine matter, compared to the other treatments; it left only 9.33% of thick material. Bio-tests were conducted on barley plants to evaluate the phytotoxicity of the worm compost, these studies showed that treatments with a 50% worm compost concentration had lower germination values (40 to 50%). Whereas treatments that contained 100% of worm compost stood out for their higher yield that ranged from 60 to 70% in their germination values.