Bioresource Technology 97 (2006) 391395

Vermicomposting of dierent types of waste using Eisenia foetida: A comparative study

Payal Garg a, Asha Gupta a, Santosh Satya
a

b,*

Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guru Jambheshwar University, Hisar (Haryana) 125 001, India b Centre for Rural Development and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi 110 016, India Received 1 September 2004; received in revised form 14 March 2005; accepted 18 March 2005 Available online 13 September 2005

Abstract A study (100 days duration) was conducted to evaluate the eciency of an exotic earthworm species (epigeicEisenia foetida) for decomposition of dierent types of organic substrates (kitchen waste, agro-residues, institutional and industrial wastes including textile industry sludge and bres) into valuable vermicompost. The percentage of, nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium in vermicompost was found to increase while pH and total organic carbon declined as a function of the vermicomposting period. 4.45.8-fold increases in TKN was observed in dierent feed mixtures at the end of vermicomposting period. The increase in TKN for dierent feed substrates was found in the order: textile sludge > textile bre = institutional waste > agro-residues > kitchen waste. Available Phosphorus increased 1.4 to 6.5-fold in dierent feed mixtures in comparison to control. Reduction in TOC was highest in agro-residues (3-fold) followed by kitchen waste (2.2-fold), institutional waste (1.7-fold) and textile industrial wastes (sludge, 1.5-fold and bre, 1.68-fold) in earthworm-inoculated pots than control. The data reveals that vermicomposting (using E. foetida) is a suitable technology for the decomposition of dierent types of organic wastes (domestic as well as industrial) into value-added material. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Eisenia foetida; Agro-residues; Industrial waste; Vermicomposting

1. Introduction Over the last few years, the problem of ecient disposal and management of organic solid wastes has become more rigorous due to rapidly increasing population, intensive agriculture and industrialization. Production of large quantities of organic waste all over the world poses major environmental (oensive odors, contamination of ground water and soil) and disposal problems (Edwards and Bater, 1992). Therefore, the disposal of dierent types of wastes has become very

Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 11 26596251/18; fax: +91 11 26591121. E-mail address: santoshsatya_iitd@hotmail.com (S. Satya). 0960-8524/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2005.03.009

important issue for maintaining healthy environment (Senapati and Julka, 1993). Although various physical, chemical and microbiological methods of disposal of organic solid wastes are currently in use, these methods are time consuming and involve high costs. Therefore, there is a pressing need to nd out cost-eective alternative method of shorter duration particularly suited to Indian conditions. In this regard, vermicomposting has been reported to be a viable, cost-eective and rapid technique for the ecient management of the organic solid wastes (Hand et al., 1988; Raymond et al., 1988; Harris et al., 1990; Logsdson, 1994). Several research studies have demonstrated the ability of some earthworm species to consume a wide range of organic wastes such as sewage sludge, animal dung, crop residues and industrial refuse

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(Mitchell et al., 1980; Chan and Griths, 1988; Hartenstein and Bisesi, 1989; Edwards, 1998). Earthworms fragment the waste substrate and accelerate rate of decomposition of the organic matter, leading to a composting eect through which unstabilized organic matter becomes stabilized. The vermicompost has more available nutrients per kg weight than the organic substrate from which it is produced (Buchanam et al., 1988). The biological activity of earthworms provides nutrient rich vermicompost for plant growth thus facilitating the transfer of nutrients to plants. (Ismail, 2000). Keeping in view the above facts, the present study was conducted to assess the potential of Eisenia foetida in composting the dierent types of organic substrates (i.e. textile sludge, textile bre, institutional waste, kitchen waste, agro-residues) and quality of vermicompost thus produced.

and covered with the gunny bags to avoid direct sunlight. There were three replicates for each feed mixture. The control (i.e. untreated) pots had no earthworm. 2.4. Chemical analysis Vermicompost samples were drawn at dierent intervals i.e. 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 days. The 0 day refers to the time of initial mixing of waste with cowdung and soil before preliminary decomposition. The earthworms were removed manually at the end of the experiment. Determination of pH was done by a digital pH meter (ELICO- L1 162), electrical conductivity by a conductivity meter (ELICO-180). Total organic carbon and total Kjeldhal nitrogen were estimated by Walkley and Black rapid titration method (1934) and microKjeldhal method, respectively (Singh and Pradhan, 1981). Available phosphorus and total potassium were estimated by Bray and Krutz method (1945) and by Flame emission technique, respectively. All the determinations were carried out in triplicate. 2.5. Statistical analysis All the reported data are the arithmetic means of three replicates. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was done to determine any signicant dierence among the parameters analyzed during vermicomposting at 0.05% level of signicance.

2. Methods 2.1. Collection of organic wastes The organic solid wastes selected for this study i.e. kitchen waste, agro-residues and institutional wastes were obtained from Guru Jambheshwar University (G.J.U.) campus and industrial waste (sludge and bre) was procured from the textile factory (H.P. Cotton Mill Ltd.) located near Hisar, India. 2.2. Collection of earthworms The earthworms (E. foetida) were obtained from the Department of Human Resource Management, Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar. 2.3. Experimental setup The experiments were conducted in earthen pots of size (21 cm height and 25 cm diameter), each of capacity 1 kg waste, with a hole at the bottom. The composting mixture consisted of dierent kinds of substrates mixed individually with cow dung and soil in the ratio 6:3:1 (on dry weight basis). Total 500 gm (i.e. 300 gm waste + 150 gm cow dung + 50 gm soil) of composting mixture was taken in each experimental pot to provide initial favorable environmental conditions for the worms. In the treatment pots, seven healthy earthworms of approximately the same size (78 cm) and weight (2.53 gm) were introduced after 15 days of partial decomposition of organic wastes. This was done to avoid exposure of worms to high temperature during the initial thermophilic stage of composting. The duration of experiment was 100 days. Water was sprinkled daily on pots using an iron sprayer to maintain the moisture level of 55 60%. The experimental pots were kept under shade

3. Results and discussion The data are presented in the Tables 13. Vermicomposting signicantly modied the physical and chemical properties of dierent feed mixture tested. The lower pH recorded in the nal products might have been due to the production of CO2 and organic acids by microbial metabolism during decomposition of dierent substrates in the feed mixtures (Albanell et al., 1988; Chan and Griths, 1988; Haimi and Hutha, 1986; Elvira et al., 1998). Similar results on vermicomposting of cattle manure, fruit and vegetable wastes have been reported by Mitchell (1997) and Gunadi and Edwards (2003). It was also reported that dierent substrates could result in the production of dierent intermediate species resulting in dierent behavior in pH shift. Organic carbon decreased more signicantly with time in all the feed substrates as compared to control. The maximum reduction in TOC was obtained in agro-residues (3-fold) and kitchen waste (2.2-fold) in comparison to institutional (1.7-fold) and textile industrial wastes (sludge, 1.5-fold and bre, 1.68-fold) in earthworm inoculated pots than control. 1.21.7-fold loss of organic carbon as CO2 was observed during vermicomposting of paper mill and

Table 1 Chemical analysis of the compost prepared from dierent wastes at dierent time period Days Sludge pH 0 20 40 60 80 100 8.4 0.05 (8.4 0.15) 8.3 0.1 (8.4 0.08) 8.2 0.05 (8.4 0.05) 8.2 0.05 (8.4 0.1) 7.9 0.05 (8.0 0.06) 7.7 0.11 (7.9 0.15) TOC (%) 5.1 0.08 (5.1 0.05) 4.6 0.12 (5.1 0.08) 4.32 0.07 (4.52 0.08) 4.05 0.04 (4.49 0.06) 3.6 0.10 (4.4 0.15) 3.44 0.05 (3.78 0.1) Fibre pH 8.8 0 (8.8 0.04) 8.8 0.08 (8.8 0.09) 8.7 0.08 (8.8 0.1) 8.3 0.08 (8.5 0.15) 8.1 0.08 (8.4 0.05) 8.0 0 (8.3 0.06) TOC (%) 6.4 0.08 (6.4 0) 5.4 0.08 (6.1 0.08) 5.2 0.17 (6.0 0.19) 4.6 0.025 (5.2 0.05) 4.2 0.08 (5.2 0) 3.8 0.08 (5.1 0.1) Institutional pH 8.5 0.05 (8.5 0.05) 8.3 0.05 (8.5 0.11) 8.3 0.05 (8.5 0.05) 8.1 0.05 (8.4 0.05) 8.0 0 (8.4 0.05) 7.9 0.05 (8.3 0.05) TOC (%) 5.5 0.05 (5.5 0.08) 5.0 0.2 (5.2 0.25) 4.6 0.08 (5.1 0.08) 4.0 0.08 (4.7 0.15) 3.4 0.05 (3.7 0.08) 3.2 0.08 (3.7 0.05) Kitchen pH 9.5 0.05 (9.5 0.04) 9.4 0.05 (9.5 0.05) 9.1 0.05 (9.2 0.11) 8.6 0.11 (8.8 0.09) 8.5 0.05 (8.8 0.08) 8.3 0.1 (8.8 0.08) TOC (%) 7.3 0.11 (7.3 0.12) 5.4 0.11 (6.4 0.15) 4.9 0.21 (5.7 0.25) 4.2 0.18 (5.1 0.15) 3.6 0.08 (4.5 0.09) 3.3 0.14 (4.5 0.16) Agro-residues pH 8.5 0 (8.5 0.05) 8.2 0.05 (8.4 0.05) 8.1 0 (8.3 0.02) 8.1 0 (8.3 0.05) 8.0 0.05 (8.3 0.1) 7.8 0.11 (8.1 0.12) TOC (%) 10.6 0 (10.6 0) 7.1 0.11 (7.7 0.13) 5.2 0.05 (6.0 0.07) 4.8 0.28 (5.7 0.2) 4.2 0.15 (4.7 0.18) 3.5 0.40 (4.5 0.29)

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All values are the mean and standard deviation of three replicates; all values are given in the percentage except pH. The values given in parentheses are the control values.

Table 2 Characteristics of vermicompost prepared from industrial (sludge and bre) and institutional wastes at dierent time period Days Textile Sludge EC (ms/cm) TKN (%) 0 20 40 60 80 100 0.3 0.05 (0.3 0.06) 0.3 0.05 (0.3 0.02) 0.5 0.08 (0.4 0.05) 0.6 0.05 (0.6 0.06) 1.1 0.1 (0.7 0.08) 1.6 0.14 (1.3 0.01) 0.12 0.005 (0.12 0.011) 0.14 0.011 (0.12 0.015) 0.2 0.020 (0.13 0.05) 0.2 0.026 (0.2 0.03) 0.4 0.020 (0.21 0.15) 0.7 0.023 (0.32 0.05) P (%) 0.004 0 (0.004 0.0005) 0.006 0.0005 (0.004 0.0005) 0.008 0.0008 (0.005 0.003) 0.015 0.0005 (0.006 0.005) 0.022 0 (0.006 0.002) 0.026 0 (0.007 0.001) TK (%) 0.03 0.05 (0.03 0) 0.031 0.001 (0.03 0.002) 0.04 0.002 (0.03 0.015) 0.05 0.002 (0.031 0.005) 0.05 0.002 (0.037 0.002) 0.069 0.001 (0.043 0.012) Fibre EC (ms/cm) TKN (%) 0.4 0 (0.4 0.05) 0.5 0.05 (0.4 0.02) 1.2 0.17 (1.1 0.15) 1.4 0.05 (1.3 0.06) 1.8 0.05 (1.4 0.08) 2.4 0.1 (1.4 0.13) 0.10 0.005 (0.10 0.005) 0.11 0.005 (0.10 0.001) 0.14 0.011 (0.12 0.015) 0.22 0.005 (0.15 0.008) 0.34 0.025 (0.22 0.04) 0.52 0.043 (0.28 0.042) P (%) 0.026 0 (0.026 0.001) 0.03 0.002 (0.03 0.005) 0.04 0.0005 (0.03 0.013) 0.04 0.0005 (0.03 0.002) 0.05 0.001 (0.032 0.002) 0.06 0.001 (0.032 0.005) TK (%) 0.082 0.002 (0.082 0.015) 0.088 0.003 (0.082 0.002) 0.101 0.012 (0.085 0.11) 0.187 0.015 (0.089 0.003) 0.222 0.006 (0.125 0.001) 0.247 0.009 (0.131 0.11) EC (ms/cm) TKN (%) 0.2 0.05 (0.2 0) 0.2 0.05 (0.2 0.05) 0.3 0.1 (0.2 0.12) 0.5 0.1 (0.4 0.08) 0.6 0.05 (0.4 0.08) 0.7 0.05 (0.5 0) 0.14 0.01 (0.14 0.05) 0.16 0.023 (0.14 0.015) 0.25 0.04 (0.14 0.05) 0.37 0.034 (0.19 0.025) 0.56 0.011 (0.26 0.08) 0.73 0.04 (0.30 0.06) P (%) 0.04 0 (0.04 0.002) 0.06 0.001 (0.044 0.001) 0.06 0.001 (0.048 0.011) 0.071 0.001 (0.048 0.008) 0.08 0 (0.05 0.005) 0.087 0.0005 (0.052 0.001) TK (%) 0.035 0.0005 (0.035 0.0025) 0.043 0.0005 (0.035 0.0012) 0.047 0.001 (0.036 0.005) 0.055 0.001 (0.039 0.002) 0.065 0.0005 (0.042 0.0005) 0.072 0.001 (0.049 0.005) Institutional

All values are the mean and standard deviation of three replicates; all values are given in the percentage except EC (ms/cm). The values given in parentheses are the control values. 393

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dairy sludge (Elvira et al., 1998). Gradual increase in EC was recorded in all the feed substrates under decomposition (Tables 2 and 3). This may be attributed due to freely available ions and minerals that are generated during ingestion and excretion by the earthworms. Total Kjeldhal nitrogen content of the compost increased signicantly with time in all the substrates in the presence of earthworms. 4.45.8-fold increases was observed in TKN at the end of vermicomposting period in dierent feed mixtures, probably due to mineralization of the organic matter (Tables 2 and 3). The increase in TKN for dierent feed substrates was found in the following order. Textile sludge > textile bre = institutional waste > agro-residues > kitchen waste. Kaushik and Garg (2004) observed increase in TKN (23.2-fold) in textile mill sludge along with cowdung and agricultural residues. Decrease in pH may be an important factor in nitrogen retention as this element is lost as volatile ammonia at higher pH (Hartenstein and Hartenstein, 1981). Increase in nitrogen content in the nal product in the form of mucus, nitrogenous excretory substances, growth stimulating hormones and enzymes from earthworms have also been reported (Tripathi and Bhardwaj, 2004). According to Viel et al. (1987) loss in organic carbon might be responsible for nitrogen enhancement. Earthworms also have a great impact on nitrogen transformations in manure, by enhancing nitrogen mineralization, so that mineral nitrogen may be retained in the nitrate form Atiyeh et al. (2000). However, in general the nal N content of compost is dependent on the initial N present in the waste and the extent of decomposition (Crawford, 1983; Gaur and Singh, 1995). Data reveals that available phosphorous and total potassium increased signicantly in all the substrates with worm inoculated waste than in control i.e. treatments without earthworms (Tables 2 and 3). Available Phosphorus increased 1.46.5-fold in all the feed mixture in comparison to control. Mansell et al. (1981) observed that plant litter was found to contain more available P after ingestion by earthworms, which may be due to the physical breakdown of the plant material by worms. Satchell and Martein (1984) also found an increase of 25% in P of paper waste sludge, after worm activity. They attributed this increase in P to direct action of worm gut enzymes and indirectly by stimulation of the microora. Increase in TP during vermicomposting is probably due to mineralization and mobilization of phosphorus as a result of bacterial and faecal phosphatase activity of earthworms (Edwards and Lofty, 1972). TK was also higher in the nal product than in the initial feed substrates indicating that the microbial ora also inuences the level of available potassium. Acid production by the microorganisms seems to be prime mechanism for solubilizing the insoluble potassium.

0.062 0.001 (0.062 0.001) 0.090 0.001 (0.073 0.001) 0.141 0.004 (0.088 0.006) 0.181 0.012 (0.095 0.015) 0.223 0.003 (0.137 0.005) 0.263 0.006 (0.155 0.002) 0 20 40 60 80 100 0.4 0.05 (0.4 0.05) 0.5 0.05 (0.4 0.02) 1.4 0.05 (1.4 0.05) 1.7 0.05 (1.5 0) 1.9 0 (1.5 0.01) 2.3 0.05 (1.6 0.06) 0.25 0.005 (0.25 0.008) 0.31 0.011 (0.27 0.005) 0.38 0.01 (0.28 0.012) 0.56 0.01 (0.30 0.02) 0.78 0.034 (0.41 0.04) 1.10 0.023 (0.57 0.02) 0.13 0 (0.13 0.005) 0.13 0.005 (0.13 0) 0.15 0.005 (0.13 0.005) 0.16 0.011 (0.16 0.016) 0.17 0 (0.14 0.08) 0.18 0 (0.14 0.05) 0.087 0.001 (0.087 0.005) 0.133 0.003 (0.107 0.005) 0.195 0.003 (0.155 0.001) 0.332 0.003 (0.214 0.015) 0.387 0.006 (0.268 0.002) 0.436 0.006 (0.310 0.006) 0.3 0.05 (0.3 0) 0.5 0.11 (0.5 0.16) 0.5 0.11 (0.3 0.15) 0.6 0.08 (0.4 0.08) 1.4 0.05 (0.8 0.02) 1.5 0.05 (0.9 0.06) 0.18 0 (0.18 0.012) 0.20 0.017 (0.18 0.015) 0.30 0.036 (0.3 0.025) 0.45 0.034 (0.27 0.036) 0.66 0.096 (0.40 0.05) 0.88 0.051 (0.55 0.05) 0.070 0.003 (0.070 0.005) 0.076 0.0005 (0.070 0.0003) 0.080 0.0005 (0.071 0.0005) 0.090 0.0005 (0.074 0.0008) 0.10 0.0005 (0.076 0) 0.10 0.001 (0.078 0.001)

Table 3 Characteristics of the vermicompost prepared from kitchen and agricultural wastes at dierent time period

Days

All values are the mean and standard deviation of three replicates; all values are given in the percentage except EC (ms/cm). The values given in parentheses are the control values.

Agricultural Kitchen

EC (ms/cm)

TKN (%)

P (%)

TK (%)

EC (ms/cm)

TKN (%)

P (%)

TK (%)

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4. Conclusion The eciency of vermicomposting process using E. foetida (epigeic species) on the basis of nutrient content (N, P) of the compost was found maximum for industrial waste followed by institutional waste, agroresidues and kitchen waste. Experimental data provides a sound basis that vermicomposting is a suitable technology for conversion of dierent types of organic wastes (domestic as well as industrial) into value-added material. Analysis of vermicompost obtained from different organic substrates clearly indicates its utility as soil conditioner and good source for plant nutrients in agriculture. In view of ecological aspects, potential of Indigenous species in agriculture needs to be explored. Acknowledgements Authors are thankful to Dr. Veena Sangwan, Dr. Sanjay Thakral and Dr. Rajendra Kumar Panwar, Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar for providing necessary experimental facilities and valuable suggestions.

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