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N. Bolong and I. Saad
1 Introduction
The food industry is one of the largest and most important industrial sectors, and its
size is directly proportional to population and demand. In line with the rapid growth of
population and industry, the generation of municipal solid waste has also increased.
Perhaps shockingly, the largest contribution to municipal solid waste comes from
food. In Malaysia, solid waste is produced at a rate of 38,000 tons per day with
15,000 tons of this being food waste (Naidu 2017). Facilities for waste treatment
are also inadequate to meet the requirements for proper waste management on this
scale (Agamuthu 2001). In developing countries, a lack of environmental awareness,
indifferent attitudes, and a lack of public participation have caused many waste
management strategies to fail (Saeed et al. 2009). Given this tremendous rate of
waste generation, food waste disposal becomes one of the main issues affecting
environmental and sustainable development.
Landfilling is the most common method for food waste disposal, and most landfill
sites in Malaysia are open dumping areas which pose serious environmental threats
such as soil, water, and air contamination. Many landfills in Malaysia have reached
their capacity (Moh and Manaf 2014). Most Malaysians generate an average of 1.7 kg
of solids per day (Jusoh et al. 2013) which has increased from 0.7 kg per day in 1987
(Kathrivale et al. 2003). There is an acute shortage of landfill space in Malaysia,
and the continued disposal of solid waste (include food waste) at landfills would the
strategic use of landfills for the disposal of the more demanding waste types such as
persistent domestic refuse and hazardous waste.
Composting provides an attractive alternative approach to solid waste management. It is simple to perform and is known to be safe and beneficial as an organic
fertilizer and soil conditioner (Arslan et al. 2008). Unfortunately, large-scale composting (1–10 tons/day) was reported disadvantaged due to poor source separation
at origin and lack of operation monitoring (temperature and moisture) lead to low
demand and low quality of compost (Madusanka et al. 2017). The effectiveness of
individual composting systems relies on their environmental conditions. Factors that
greatly affect the decomposition process in any composting method are moisture,
temperature, aeration (oxygen availability), C-to-N ratio, pH value, metabolic heat
generation, available nutrients, and the physical state of the materials (Beffa et al.
1996; Sartaj et al. 1995). Composting itself can be carried out using various methods
which include open-air composting and vermicomposting, which uses earthworms
in the process. Common problems encountered in composting can be attributed to a
lack of moisture, which can cause the compost pile temperature to be too low, killing
earthworms, and resulting in slow degradation and a lack of movement. Temperature
is a dominant parameter for composting, with a range from 40 to 65 °C being suitable
to control microbial activity (Antil et al. 2014). Temperature can be maintained by
adding water into the pile or manually turning the pile from time to time. The success
of vermicomposting depends on the abiotic and biotic factors illustrated in Fig. 1.
Vermicomposting is a method of composting worms (Kimbal and Doeksen 2007)
to help fragment, mix, and aerate the waste (Frederickson and Ross-Smith 2004).
N. Bolong and I. Saad
1 Introduction
The food industry is one of the largest and most important industrial sectors, and its
size is directly proportional to population and demand. In line with the rapid growth of
population and industry, the generation of municipal solid waste has also increased.
Perhaps shockingly, the largest contribution to municipal solid waste comes from
food. In Malaysia, solid waste is produced at a rate of 38,000 tons per day with
15,000 tons of this being food waste (Naidu 2017). Facilities for waste treatment
are also inadequate to meet the requirements for proper waste management on this
scale (Agamuthu 2001). In developing countries, a lack of environmental awareness,
indifferent attitudes, and a lack of public participation have caused many waste
management strategies to fail (Saeed et al. 2009). Given this tremendous rate of
waste generation, food waste disposal becomes one of the main issues affecting
environmental and sustainable development.
Landfilling is the most common method for food waste disposal, and most landfill
sites in Malaysia are open dumping areas which pose serious environmental threats
such as soil, water, and air contamination. Many landfills in Malaysia have reached
their capacity (Moh and Manaf 2014). Most Malaysians generate an average of 1.7 kg
of solids per day (Jusoh et al. 2013) which has increased from 0.7 kg per day in 1987
(Kathrivale et al. 2003). There is an acute shortage of landfill space in Malaysia,
and the continued disposal of solid waste (include food waste) at landfills would the
strategic use of landfills for the disposal of the more demanding waste types such as
persistent domestic refuse and hazardous waste.
Composting provides an attractive alternative approach to solid waste management. It is simple to perform and is known to be safe and beneficial as an organic
fertilizer and soil conditioner (Arslan et al. 2008). Unfortunately, large-scale composting (1–10 tons/day) was reported disadvantaged due to poor source separation
at origin and lack of operation monitoring (temperature and moisture) lead to low
demand and low quality of compost (Madusanka et al. 2017). The effectiveness of
individual composting systems relies on their environmental conditions. Factors that
greatly affect the decomposition process in any composting method are moisture,
temperature, aeration (oxygen availability), C-to-N ratio, pH value, metabolic heat
generation, available nutrients, and the physical state of the materials (Beffa et al.
1996; Sartaj et al. 1995). Composting itself can be carried out using various methods
which include open-air composting and vermicomposting, which uses earthworms
in the process. Common problems encountered in composting can be attributed to a
lack of moisture, which can cause the compost pile temperature to be too low, killing
earthworms, and resulting in slow degradation and a lack of movement. Temperature
is a dominant parameter for composting, with a range from 40 to 65 °C being suitable
to control microbial activity (Antil et al. 2014). Temperature can be maintained by
adding water into the pile or manually turning the pile from time to time. The success
of vermicomposting depends on the abiotic and biotic factors illustrated in Fig. 1.
Vermicomposting is a method of composting worms (Kimbal and Doeksen 2007)
to help fragment, mix, and aerate the waste (Frederickson and Ross-Smith 2004).