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Bio-Waste Composting in Rural Conditions

Bohdan STEJSKAL1, Tereza KNIEZKOVÁ1, Miloslava NÁPLAVOVÁ1, Kristýna NOVOTNÁ1
1 Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Agronomy, Department of Applied and Landscape Ecology, Brno, CZECH REPUBLIC
E-mail: bohdan.stejskal@uake.cz
Pages: 37-40

Abstract. One of the most serious problems of waste management of Czech Republic is the useful treatment of bio-degradable municipal waste because EU Council Directive 1999/31/EC requires member states to limit the amount of bio-degradable waste deposited into landfill. Solution of this problem can be composting of bio-degradable municipal waste but there are many operational and economic problems. This article describes advantages and problems of bio-waste composting in rural conditions (of Czech Republic) at all parts of composting process, i.e. from bio-waste sorting and collection through bio-waste composting to utilization and sale of compost. Bio-waste composting in countryside brings many benefits. The waste is treated at the place of origin and it is possible to get the organic mass of compost back to the field with minimal transport distances. Decentralized waste treatment brings jobs to regions of a small rate of employment. It is necessary to solve many problems related to the process of composting. Quality of input raw material is the first of them. It was found that the amount of undesirable impurities in separately collected biodegradable municipal waste depends on the type of building density and the settlement size. By the measurement of 200 kg samples of sorted bio-waste it was showed that purity of waste sorting is much better in small villages than in rather big cities. Right size of composting plant is another question to discussion. A lot of small composting plants built for several villages allow wastes treatment in the place of origin but just a big composting plant is reach enough to have adequate machine equipment. Of course, in this case there are long transport distances. Compost selling is connected with other problems. Farmers usually do not want even high-quality compost because the costs of compost application to the field (although missing of organic mass in the soil). Lots of low-quality compost is used as a reclaim material.

K e y w o r d s:  bio-waste, composting, sorting, waste utilization, rural