Abstract:
The intermittently coinposting is one of the interesting methods for compostingin term of waste inanageinent sincc household food wastes generated daily can be treated at source.Bullting agent that is used in the coinposting process not only can adjust the CIN ratio to the optimum ratio but it also provides structural support for co~nposting process and create void spaccs in case of acrobic composting. There fore, this study was about the effect of bullting agents on the physical, chemical, and biological changes during the interinittently composting of l~ousel~oflodo d wastcs.At the initial stagc of thc study. the type and size of the bulking agents were selected based on thc following chemical propcrtics, which included pH, C/N ratio, inoisturc, lignin, hollocellulose, alpha-cellulose, beta-cellulose and garnina-ccllulose contents. Another criteria was based on the physical properties, which were density, particle spacc ratio (PSR) value, water retention ratio (WRR) value.water drainage resistance (WDR) value, and durability to wear value. It was observed that all sawdust froin teak and coconut huslt at thc size of 40 and 60 mesh, burina sal and rubber tree at thc size of 40 mesh and sawdust froin paper bark at the sizc of 60 mesh had suitablc chemical and physical properties for being used as bullting agent tor coinposting.Then, the study of the coinposting process of food waste and the 5 bulking agents in garbage automatic dccoinposei- extinguisl~cr( GADE) was carried out by controlling initial C N ratio at 35 and the starting volume at 55% of the reactor, with feeding rate of 1.5 kglday. The moisture content was controllcd at 50-60% and the reactor was acratcd fro111 the bottoin of the reactor. It was found that in all bulking agents there were similar changes in the bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes populations, temperature, nitrogen content, lignin, and hollocellulose content during the composting process. All the bulking agents after the composting, there was a decrease in PSR and WRR value and an increase in WDR value, except sawdust from burina sal where was an increasc in PSR value. The sawdust from teak, burina sal, rubber tree and paper bark as the bulking agents was found to have ability to contain the moisture content better than coconut husk. However, the compost with additional coconut husk as bulking agent have the highest degradation of organic carbon within decoinposition phase and curing phase. The lowest degradation of organic carbon was shown when rubber tree was used as bulking agent. Even though the compost u'i th additional sawdust from burma sal and paper bark give a higher organic carbon degradation ratc than the one with rubber tree as bulking agent, the composting materials were coagulated and it gave out strong acidified odor throughout the feeding period (25 days).Therefore, sawdust fi-om paper bark and burma sal were not suitable for using as bulking agent for composting in ho~~sehold.When coinpwc thc household waste loading ability and the coinposting time needed, it was found that using all five bulking agents with in the system could accommodate the feeding for up to at least 25 days, where the total 37.5 kg household waste was cotnposted within 39-46 days. The coinposting quality from all composting models containing nitrogen and organic contents higher than thc coinposting quality standard assigned by both Agriculture extension and Land developing Department. However, the C/N ratio, phosphorus, potassium and moisture contents were within the standard range.