Author/Authors :
Kalamdhad Ajay S نويسنده epartment of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, Assam, India , Sharma Dayanand نويسنده Civil Engineering Department, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, Gujarat 395007, India , Varma V. Sudharsan نويسنده Civil Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, Assam 781039, India , Yadav Kunwar D نويسنده Civil Engineering Department, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, Gujarat 395007, India
Abstract :
Purpose Flower waste dumping in landfills and other
disposal sites is causing major environmental issues due to
its highly biodegradable nature. Instead, flower waste can
be successfully composted for its higher nutrient value.
Therefore, this study evaluated the pile composting of
flower waste with different combinations of cow dung and
saw dust to produce stabilized compost.
Methods Five agitated piles of flower waste mixture were
formed in trapezoidal shape to perform the composting.
Pile (P0) was a control experiment, which contained
100 kg flower waste. The quantity of flower waste mixture
with cow dung and saw dust in the other Piles was a total of
100 kg i.e. P1 (50:40:10) kg, P2 (60:30:10) kg, P3
(70:20:10) kg and P4 (80:10:10) kg, respectively.
Results Temperature above 50 C was observed in all the
piles except in P0. Physico-chemical characteristics of
compost showed a stabilized compost obtained by proportionate mix of flower waste, cow dung and saw dust.
Pile P2 was observed with pH 7.23 and electrical conductivity 3.98 mS cm-1, total organic carbon 30.9%, total
nitrogen 2.31% and C:N ratio 14, thus a good proportion
for compost amongst all the piles.
Conclusions Appropriate proportion of waste mixture
played an important role in providing favorable conditions
for the microbial transformation of flower waste to stabilized compost. Temperature influenced the growth of
microbes and maximum temperature was helpful in fast
degradation of organic matter. Finally, flower waste with a
combination of cow dung and saw dust was found to be
successful during pile composting
