Municipal Solid Waste Composting: Issues in Risk Assessment & Management/worker Health & Safety

What are the risks in various alternatives for resource recovery and waste management? Who or what is threatened? What is saved or protected? Decisions about environmental risks are made in the face of uncertainties beyond common experience, particularly for new technologies. Municipal solid waste (MSW) composting lacks evaluative data offering a foundation on which to base scientific assessments. With MSW composting, the situation is further complicated by the highly diverse, and often changing, nature of MSW and other materials with which it might be composted. Historically, composting has both provided a soil conditioner/ nutrient source and been a means of waste management of large volumes of sludge and manure. The product can be a clean, odor-free and welcome garden amendment, but the process may be messy, odiferous and subject to many complaints, even though people recognize it as a “green” alternative to landfills and incinerators. This obvious ambivalence affects the policies and perceptions regarding composting and its products. Serious, immediate and widespread threats to the environment and consumers presented by MSW composts are not evident. Specific hazards to workers are recognized and being addressed, although there are concerns (see below). Most of the unresolved issues focus on long-term, chronic exposures. Despite uncertainties, those responsible for risk management must act to safeguard public health and the environment. Reasonable regulations must be set and standards for accountability determined.