Abstract
In solid waste management, pollution-free disposal of leaf waste in urban areas is still not standardized and adopted. According to the World Bank report, 57% of wastes generated in South East Asia are consisted of food and green waste, which can be recycled into valuable bio-compost. The present study shows a method of leaf litter waste management by composting it using essential microbe (EM) method. Different parameters, such as pH, electrical conductivity, macronutrients, micronutrients, and potentially toxic elements (PTE) were measured at zero to 50 days of composting using appropriate methods. The microbial composting was shown to mature within 20 to 40 days, and its maturity could be evaluated by the attainment of stable pH (8), electrical conductivity (0.9 mS/cm), and C:N ratio ≥ 20. The analysis was also performed on other bio-composts viz. kitchen waste compost, vermicompost, cow dung manure, municipal organic waste compost, and neem cake compost. The fertility index (FI) was evaluated based on six parameters viz. total carbon, total nitrogen, N ratio, phosphorus, potassium, and sulphur contents. The PTE values were used to calculate their clean index (CI). The results showed that leaf waste compost has a higher fertility index (FI = 4.06) than other bio-composts, except the neem cake compost (FI = 4.44). The clean index of the leaf waste compost (CI = 4.38) was also higher than other bio-composts. This indicates that leaf waste compost is a valuable bio-resource with high nutritive value and low PTE contamination, with a favourable prospective to be used in organic farming.
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The dataset utilized/analysed during the current study will be available from the corresponding author upon request.
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Acknowledgements
We are thankfull to the University Science Instrumentation Centre (USIC), University of Delhi, for extending the CNS analyser.
Funding
Authors are thankful to Inter University Accelerator Centre (IUAC) for extending Q-ICPMS, established under National Geochronology Facility funded by the Ministry of Earth Science (MoES) with project reference number MoES/P.O.(Seismic)8(09)-Geochron/2012. We acknowledged the University Grant Commission, Govt. of India, for granting fellowship to the first author, bearing award no. 598/CSIR-UGC NET JUNE 2018.
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Sarita Nanda—conceptualisation and experimental design; Sophayo Mahongnao and Pooja Sharma—data generation, data curation, formal analysis, and original drafting; Arif Ahamad—methodology; Darshan Singh—methodology of sample digestion; Pankaj Kumar and Pavitra V Kumar—instrumentation. All authors have read, edited, and approved the final manuscript.
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Mahongnao, S., Sharma, P., Singh, D. et al. Formation and characterization of leaf waste into organic compost. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 75823–75837 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-27768-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-27768-7