DETERMINATION OF HOUSEHOLD SOLID WASTE GENERATION PROFILE OF AWKA AND USE OF COMPOSTING FOR ITS MANAGEMENT

AUTHOR: NNABUGWU STELLA CHIDIMMA

DEPARTMENT: APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY AND BREWING

AFFILIATION: NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY, AWKA

The determination of household solid waste generation profile of Awka and use of composting to manage the wastes was carried out. According to income level / home criteria, the study area was divided into three distinct levels of standard of living called high income, middle income and low income earners. Wastes from 120 households were weighed daily and the total wastes generated by each household were collected seven days a week, for a period of four weeks. Hand sorting was used for classifying the collected wastes into the following categories: fermentable/putrescible, paper, textiles, plastics, leather/rubber, metal, glass/ceramic and miscellaneous (wastes that do not fit into any of the above categories). Composting of the organic fractions of the wastes was carried out using the Indore heap method of composting. The wastes were layered alternately in two Piles (Piles A and B). Wastes in Pile A were amended with poultry manure, while Pile B contained organic wastes only. The process was monitored by evaluating physical, chemical and microbiological parameters. Results indicated that the amount of wastes generated increased with the standard of living and family size. The daily waste generation rate ranged from 0.36 to 0.43 kg/person/day, while the average rate was 0.40 kg/person/day for the three income levels. Regardless of the standard of living, fermentable/putrescible components represent the largest proportion (45.89%) of the wastes generated followed by plastics (17.61%) and paper (10.07%). The temperature of the composting substrates ranged from 290C to 460C, the pH was between 5.1 to 8.44, while the moisture content ranged from 27% to 52.5%. Bacterial counts increased from 1.34 x 107 to 2.41 x 109 cfu/g while the fungal counts were between 1.7 x 103 to 3.9 x 105 cfu/g. The bacteria isolated include Bacillus, Staphylococcus, Micrococcus, Pseudomonas, Beijerinckia, Methylomonas, Klebsiella, Proteus and Escherichia species. The fungal isolates include Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus glaucus, Cunninghamella, Mucor, Trichoderma, Absidia, Rhizomucor, Verticillium, Fusarium, Sepedonium, Candida albicans and Saccharomyces specie. The trends in microbial succession in the composting wastes in Piles A and B were similar. The poultry manure used as supplement (in Pile A) introduced more microbes into the compost, lowered the C/N ratio, induced the early maturity of the compost and contributed to the nutritional content of the Pile A compost at the end of the composting process.

TO VIEW THE FULL CONTENT OF THIS DOCUMENT, PLEASE VISIT THE UNIZIK LIBRARY WEBSITE USING THIS LINK, http://naulibrary.org/dglibrary/admin/book_directory/Thesis/11600.pdf