Composting of food waste for the production of organic fertilizer

Abstract

The composting from food waste is an alternative to reduce the environmental problems and very economic as it reduces the waste going into landfill. The application of compost can improve the soil productivity and quality as well as crops production by supplying the nutrients needed. In this study, the food waste collected and composted at different parameters which were the time of compost, compost amount and depth of compost site. The moisture content for different classes of food was also determined as the moisture played an important role towards the whole process. The nutrient analysis was conducted for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content. The total nitrogen was determined by using the Kjeldahl method and the percentage content for all samples calculated. Meanwhile, the phosphorus and potassium’s content were determined by the spectrophotometry method. By using calibration curve, the concentrations of the nutrients were able to be identified. At day 13, the highest percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium concentration were determined. It showed that as time increased, the nutrient content of compost also increased. Furthermore, the nitrogen content was highest at 1.5 kg while for phosphorus and potassium, compost amount of 2.5 kg showed the highest content. In addition, the compost depth showed to be optimum at 20 cm for every nutrient analysis.