Soil degradation and salinization are two of the utmost threat affecting agricultural areas, derived from the increasing use of low quality water and inappropriate cultural practices. The problem of low productivity of saline soils may be ascribed not only to their salt toxicity or damage caused by excess amounts of soluble salts but also arising from the lack of organic matter and available mi...

We studied the effects of applying different composts (urban organic waste, green waste, manure and sewage sludge), mineral fertilizer and compost plus mineral fertilizer on chemical, biological and soil microbiological parameters over a 12-year period. The organic C and total N levels in soils were increased by all compost and compost + N treatments. Microbial biomass C was significantly (P £ ...

This study investigated effects of mature compost on gaseous emissions during composting using pig manure amended with corn stalks. Apart from a control treatment, three treatments were conducted with the addition of 5% (wet weight of raw materials) of mature compost: (a) mixing raw materials with mature compost at the beginning of composting; (b) covering raw materials with mature compost thro...

Two-pot experiments with ryegrass and wheat plants were conducted in a Cambic Arenosol to test the reliability of N fate predicted by incubation experiments previously performed, with the same soil, to assess potentially mineralizable nitrogen from six organic wastes (municipal solid waste compost, secondary pulp mill sludge, horn meal, poultry manure, solid phase from pig slurry and composted ...

This study aimed to monitor the process parameters and to determine kinetics in composting of organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and poultry manure. The experiments were carried out with three different mixtures. The results showed that the mixture 60% OFMSW, 20% poultry manure, 10% mature compost and 10% sawdust provided the most appropriate conditions for composting process. Us...

Pilot scale experiments with forced aeration were conducted to estimate effects of aeration rates on the performance of composting penicillin mycelial dreg using sewage sludge as inoculation. Three aeration rates of 0.15, 0.50 and 0.90L/(min·kg) organic matter (OM) were examined. The principal physicochemical parameters were monitored during the 32day composting period. Results showed that the ...

The economic, social and environmental costs of food waste are being increasingly recognised. Food waste consists of both edible and inedible components. Whilst wastage of edible food is problematic for obvious reasons, there are also costs associated with the disposal of the inedible fraction to landfill. This is the third in a series of papers examining the costs of food waste throughout the ...