Waste Recycling and Compost Benefits

Abstract

Composting is commonly used to treat solid wastes prior to recycling or disposal. It reduces the amount of material to handle and has the potential to inactivate pathogens thermally. Using composts in agriculture to minimize organic wastes and to reduce the addition of fertilizers and fungicides in crop production is highly effective. The amendment compost may improve all physical properties. Bulk density, hydraulic conductivity, porosity, and, water retention capacity may be improved, and, the improvement is proportional to the compost rate. Increasing concern regarding food safety and environmental pollution, as well as legislative pressures in European countries to reduce the number of approved active pesticide ingredients, has generated an interest in compost and other biological control agents to prevent and control plant diseases. In that way there was reported that compost amendment may be advantageous by increasing the disease suppressive properties of the soil or of the potting mixture due to an increasing microbial activity and/or the presence of specific antagonists in compost.