Comparison of compostable bags and aerated bins with conventional storage systems to collect the organic fraction of municipal solid waste from homes. a Catalonia case study.

The separation of biowaste at home is key to improving, facilitating and reducing the operational costs of the treatment of organic municipal waste. The conventional method of collecting such waste and separating it at home is usually done by using a sealed bin with a plastic bag. The use of modern compostable bags is starting to be implemented in some European countries.

Determining C/N ratios for typical organic wastes using biodegradable fractions.

It is well established that an optimal aerobic and anaerobic microbial metabolism is achieved with a C/N ratio between 20 and 30. Most studies are currently based on chemically-measured carbon and nitrogen contents. However, some organic wastes can be composed of recalcitrant carbon fractions that are not bioavailable.

Modelling the aerobic degradation of organic wastes based on slowly and rapidly degradable fractions.

Several organic wastes of major production in the world (municipal solid wastes, wastewater sludge, manures and bulking agents) and some already treated organic wastes have been investigated to determine the partition among the several fractions that compose them and their kinetics of biodegradation. Different literature models have been explored for their suitability to predict the behaviour in respiration studies of these wastes. All the models presented limitations related to their simplicity or their excessive complexity, which makes them unsuitable for reliable and fast studies at real scale.