IN-VESSEL COMPOSTING: A RAPID TECHNOLOGY FOR CONVERSION OF BIOWASTE INTO COMPOST

Abstract

Composting always proved to be the Nature-friendly and sustainable method for getting rid of the huge burden
of biowaste. As we witness, there is an intractable growth of human population and their unlimited consumption of
different goods produce a tremendous amount of waste. In New Delhi itself, more than 9500 tons of waste is generated
every day, out of which 8000 tons per day goes to the landfilling, which is the most commonly practiced method. This
malignant process instead of solving the problem of waste, in turn, causes more problems like methane emission, heavy
metal leaching into groundwater, soil pollution, etc. Composting mimics natural mineralization process which is the
alternative solution of resource recovery with no side-effects. To curb such a huge amount of waste, the composting
process must be rapidified and achieved by in-vessel composting, where the partial anaerobic condition is reduced by
enforced aeration and critical parameters like moisture and temperature can be controlled. Aerobic bacteria are the
main agents which speed up the composting process. Moreover, easily available natural additives like buttermilk,
jaggery, sugar, etc. also speed up the microbial process and increase the efficiency. So, the in-vessel composting provides
efficient compost in a very short time period. This paper will provide a critical assessment of In-vessel composting in
terms of process parameters and efficiency in comparison with conventional methods. This process can be critically
utilized for community-based composting at small scale compost production, which will be a key to link daily household
waste with resource generation with the aim to achieve Swach Bharat Mission.