Composting is the major technology in the treatment of animal manure and is a source of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas. Although the microbiological processes of both nitrification and denitrification are involved in composting, the key players in these pathways have not been well identified. Recent molecular microbiological methodologies have revealed the presence of dominant Bacillus species...

Established in 1990, the New Milford Farms (NMF) composting facility serves as a low-cost means of disposal for various industrial residues from Nestle USA, a large international food company. The NMF facility takes in organic feedstocks ranging from spent coffee grounds and industrial wastewater sludge to leaves and brush from nearby residents, and combines them to create fertilizing compost u...

Our earlier experiments in small composters (220 l) indicated the favourable effect of ash from co-incineration of sorted dry waste on the composting of catering waste. The aim of this new study was to clarify further, at a scale of 10 m3, the feasibility of using similar ash as an additive in composting. Source-separated catering waste was mixed with bulking agent (peat and wood chips) and fue...

Composting (aerobic treatment of organic wastes) and digestion (anaerobic treatment of organicwastes combined with biogas production) are important waste management strategies with increasingsignificance in the European Union and Switzerland. Most of the compost produced is applied toagricultural soils, which hereby recycles nutrients and influences soil properties beneficially. How...

Little attention has been paid to the environmental fate of the hormones 17beta-estradiol and testosterone excreted in animal waste. Land application of manure has a considerable potential to affect the environment with these endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs). Composting is known to decompose organic matter to a stable, humus-like material. The goal of the present study was to quantitativel...

In this review we discuss the transformation of organic matter during municipal solid waste (MSW) composting and the suitability of chemical and biochemical parameters in defining the stability and maturity of the end product. The dynamics of chemical and biochemical parameters, such as several hydrolase activities and water-soluble fractions (i.e. water soluble carbon, water soluble nitrogen, ...

Environmental contamination caused by residual antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in concentrated animal feeding operations has drawn increasing attention. This study investigated the removal of oxytetracycline (OTC) and sulfamethazine (SMN) as well as the behavior of their corresponding ARGs through a series of simulated composting tests with swine manure. The results indicate ...

Manure composting has gained increased acceptance by the beef cattle (Bos taurus) feedlot industry in southern Alberta, Canada. Unlike fresh manure, compost is often promoted as being "weed-free." Studies were conducted with five weed species in 1997 and thirteen in 1999 to examine the effect of feedlot manure composting on weed seed viability. Weed seeds were buried in open-air compost windrow...

Heavy metals determination in manures provides benefi cial information to predict the availability and the potential contamination of environment. Therefore, a study was carried out to investigate heavy metals changes in livestock manure during a co-composting process. The metals were stepwise fractionated into exchangeable, adsorbed, organically bound, carbonate precipitated and residual forms...