Assessment of the effectiveness of seeding microorganisms for rapid composting of organic waste: case of Kasubi market.

Abstract

Solid waste from home, industrial, and agricultural operations has increased significantly over the past few decades as a result of population growth and correspondingly quick economic development. Among these, market waste, which is produced in significant amounts annually and has a varying recycling rate from nation to nation, is becoming a global concern. A significant issue is the handling of the growing amount of organic market waste. These wastes do, however, contain vital plant nutrients that can be collected in order to improve soil fertility and raise agricultural output. But recycling this waste takes up to 60 days of composting before they are ready for use in gardens. This has left a challenge of high rate of production against rate of composting and hence the need to speed up the composting process. Enhancement of the composting process has previously been claimed to be possible by seeding of microorganisms such as lactobacillus. Such effective composting microorganisms are abundantly available in fermented milk products. In order to assess the effectiveness of Microorganisms seeded from milk for quicker composting, this study uses a quantitative research methodology. Data were gathered from the Kasubi market, which is located in Kasubi parish, Rubaga division, Kampala Capital City in Uganda, it is in west of Makerere university and lies along Latitude 00 19’ 56.2’’ and Longitude 320 33’ 22.48’’. Kasubi is one of the densely populated parishes of Rubaga division with an estimated population of 60,049 according to Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS, 2022). The study characterized the market waste. The findings revealed that 89.1±3.4% were organic wastes with an average moisture content of 71.6±3.2%. Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P), Carbon (C) and Potassium (K) were in the following composition; 0.45±0.06%, 1.2±0.10%, 9.51±1.74%, and 2.7±0.53%, respectively. This gives C:N ratio of 21:1 which is suitable for composting without enhancements. The study also looked at preparation of seeding microorganisms in a culture medium and monitored the effect of the effective microorganisms on composting process. The study's results and conclusions confirmed that introducing seeding microorganisms in an organic compost quickens an active phase of the composting process, this was shown by rapid change in the initial temperature in reactors where microorganisms where introduced. The study also looked at the quality of the yield produced in terms of nutrients and inactivation of pathogens.