Composting barrel for sustainable organic waste management in Bangladesh

To ensure quick and uniform aerobic stabilization of biowaste through domestic composting and to prevent malodorous emissions, two modifications were made to a conventional steel barrel composter by: (1) providing 0.0125 m diameter openings throughout the sides and (2) placing a 0.0254 m diameter perforated polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe in the middle portion of the barrel. The volume of composting waste before modification of the composting barrel was 40% of the original volume and it was 70%, 4 weeks following the modifications. In addition, the nutrients in the compost were found to be in a more suitable range after modification of the composting barrel. The carbon-nitrogen ratio (C/N) of the compost was in the ideal range of 11-15 in the modified composting reactor but it was quite high (24-25) in the conventional barrel. This modified barrel composting plant proved to be an efficient, eco-friendly, cost-effective solution for the management of organic solid waste materials in developing and technologically less sophisticated countries such as Bangladesh.