Design of Small Household Composter for Municipal Organic Waste

Abstract

Nowadays people live in smaller household units such as living in a room in condominium, dormitory, and houses with smaller living area.  However, garbage collected from community condominium apartment complex and housing village are still a burden to dispose. Utilization of waste can help reduce the amount of garbage destined for disposal sites. The purpose of this study is to design compost bin that fits for small households with limited space and do not create nuisance from smell or insect infestation. The studying of fermentation process and compost bin’s design has various factors, including of equipping fan to aerate the composter, using natural enzymes; papaya as pineapple peels, and different media; rice husk and coir to effectively compost household garbage in-situ. Results indicated that average ratio of product to raw materials equal to 0.28±0.08 mass of product per mass of raw materials, the composter was operated continuously with daily garbage produced from the household and after it is 90% full (about 60 days of operation), the average moisture content during composting equaled to 82.0±5.6 percentage (not installed case fan) and, 78.2±8.4 percentage (install case fan). The average temperatures during composting were not significantly different during compost compared between with and without aeration; 30.1±0.3 and 30.5±0.8 degree Celsius, respectively and the temperature is in the middle of appropriate temperature for mesophile bacteria. It was found that compost bin without aeration and without bacteria induced media has foul smell and relatively larger amount of leachate produced.  The using of enzyme from papaya and pineapple peels, although there was not significantly different in nutrients, the fermentation were faster (about 1 month to fill the bin).