Page 112 - IJES Special Issues for AIEC2016

www.sciencetarget.com

Assessment of Mixing Potential of Sewage Sludge, Green
Waste and Food Waste for Co-Composting in Sharjah, UAE

International Journal of Md Maruf Mortula1*, Aqeel Ahmad1, and Syed Ali Shah2
Environment and 1Department of Civil Engineering, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE
Sustainability [IJES] 2Compost Plant, Sharjah Municipality, Sharjah, UAE
ISSN 1927-9566
Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 12-17 Abstract. The generation of large amounts of solid waste is a big challenge for
(2016) large cities like Sharjah, UAE. A major portion of this waste is organic in nature.
There are different types of organic wastes produced in different operations
*Correspondence: within the municipalities. Instead of having separate composting facilities,
mmortula@aus.edu working with the major types of organic waste for co-composting can add value.
Sewage sludge, green waste and food waste are major sources of organic wastes
in many municipalities. Currently, the compost facility within Sharjah
Municipality uses sewage sludge and green waste as their raw material. There is
no separate composting provision for food waste. The objective of the paper was
to characterize different organic wastes and assess the suitability of co-
composting in Sharjah, UAE. The results indicated that sewage sludge, green
waste and food waste had very diverse characteristics suitable for compost.
Mixing these wastes in the appropriate proportion can generate good quality
compost. When it comes to maintaining a mixing proportion of these three
different organic wastes, there are several combinations that can work.. Optimal
moisture content was also investigated in the study.. A laboratory-based
experimental study identified the mixing potential of these three types of
organic waste for the municipality of Sharjah, UAE.

Keywords. Green Waste, Sewage Sludge, Food Waste, Co-composting

1. Introduction Consequently, valuable reuse of the organic
waste can contribute to significant diversion
Due to rapid growth of the municipalities, solid from the solid waste disposal of landfill (Körner
waste and sewage sludge generation has been et al., 2008, Zurbrügg et al., 2004, Zurbrügg et
on the rise (generated) over the past few years. al., 2005). Therefore, Sharjah Municipality
Environmental pollution caused by these needs a strong self-sustaining approach in
wastes is a major obstacle that deters municipal dealing with all these organic wastes (Mortula
growth. It is therefore crucial to find the et al., 2015).
effective methods of reusing these wastes and
reducing their adverse impact on the sur- There are different management approaches to
roundings (Lu et al., 2009). organic waste. Composting is considered to be a
simple and low-investment method (Hsu and
There are significant amounts of municipal Lo, 1999). The physical and chemical properties
waste generated within the municipalities. In of individual organic waste (food waste or
the City of Sharjah, UAE, approximately 2500 green waste) often do not support efficient
tonnes of solid waste is produced every day composting processes. Co-composting of two or
(Abu Rashed et al., 2013). The organic fraction more types of organic materials is expected to
of the waste is typically considerable for overcome the drawbacks of composting a single
developing countries (Faverial and Sierra, waste (Kumar et al., 2010). The capability of
2014). In the City of Sharjah, UAE, municipal decaying through the action of living organisms
waste consists of 40% organic waste on top of
the 14% papers and cardboards (Beeah, 2013).