New study concludes 50% of rural solid waste is organic

A new study on the solid waste composition and various solid waste treatment technologies in the rural areas of India and other countries has found that the solid waste generated in rural areas comprisemore than 50% of organic waste while the rest is inorganic.

The study finds that the waste generation rate is 0.3–0.9 kg/capita/day in various rural areas. Agriculture waste and animal waste are the major components of the organic fraction. Because of the organic nature of waste, the authors conclude, composting is the most feasible technology of treating solid waste in the rural area.

Authored by Aakash Patwan, Divyesh Parde and Devendra Dohare from Indore’s Shri G. S. Institute of Technology and Science along with Ritesh Vijay and Rakesh Kumar from Nagpur-based Centre for Strategic Urban Management (C-SUM), CSIR – NEERI, the review article also focuses on various factors which may affect the process of composting and helpful for selecting composting technology as moisture content including C/N ratio, turning frequency, particle size, aeration rate, and temperature.

Optimum values of these parameters are found that the optimum moisture content is (45%–60%), suitable temperature (45–70 °C), turning frequency (7–15 days/turning), and C/N ratio (25–30).

This paper also contains various treatment technologies for organic solid waste which are based on composting and anaerobic digestion.

The study is part of the academic journal Environmental Technology & Innovation, Volume 20, November 2020.

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