Fast composting of food waste using thermal composter

Abstract

Composting is an effective method to treat food waste. If food waste can be reduced from households, the transportation process to landfills can be reduced, cheaper costs, and the amount of waste in landfills. In this study, an innovative composting device-thermal composter was developed to accelerate the composting of food waste at home. This study uses food waste in a mixture of Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa subsp. pekinensis) and rice from a household in Semarang, Indonesia. Food waste was chopped, stirred, heated, and decomposed in a thermal composter. The composting was carried out for three days with moisture content, pH, electrical conductivity, volatile solids, C-Organic, N-Total, P-Total, K-Total, plant growth test (Vigna radiata). The results showed that the growth of Vigna radiata using compost on the third day was better than on the first day. Final compost quality has water content = 75.16%, pH = 7.09, electrical conductivity = 552 Scm-1, volatile solid = 76.45 %, C-Organic = 7.05%, N-Total= 0.433 %, P-Total= 0.147 mg P2O5/100 g, K-Total= 0.149 mg K2O/100 g. It indicates that food waste can be recycled into useful products on a household scale within three days.