The municipalities in Slovakia have a duty to separate biodegradable municipal waste (BDMW) from family houses. This duty can be achieved by home composting or by collection of green waste in bio-bins, which are regularly emptied by a collection company. The collected waste is recycled in a composting plant. The conducted research was focused on identifying the composition of the collected green waste and comparing the environmental behaviour of residents in villages and towns. The analyses conducted showed that the separated BDMW from the urban population has a higher rate of contamination, but a lower rate of compostable kitchen waste compared to the residents in villages.
The production of compost from biodegradable municipal waste is important not only for reducing the amount of landfilled waste. The compost produced with the right technology can replenish the missing organic matter in the soil and improve its properties. This paper deals with the evaluation of the phytotoxicity of composts from garden and kitchen biodegradable wastes. Their effect on plant germination and overall plant condition under laboratory conditions was investigated. The samples of compost from the industrial composting plant of the city of Nitra and compost from the electric composter GG02 were used for this test. The tested composts were mixed with the reference substrate in different concentrations and applied to two plant species – Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) and Barley (Hordeum vulgare). After 21 days, the number of germinated plants (i.e. germination rate), the length of the aerial part of the plants, the weight of fresh biomass and also its weight after drying were evaluated. The highest lettuce germination rate was obtained with 25% of the compost from the industrial composting plant. Barley achieved the best germination rate at up to 50% concentration of this compost. However, the highest biomass weight was obtained for the barley in the reference sample, i.e. without the addition of compost. In contrast, the application of compost from the industrial composting plant on lettuce, regardless of its concentration, had a clear stimulating effect, in all the parameters studied. The compost from the electric composter at concentrations of 25 and 50% had an inhibitory effect on all tested parameters of both plants.
According to Directive (EU) 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019, single-use plastic cutlery, cotton buds, straws and stirrers will be banned in the member states of EU from summer 2021 onwards. Many of them are being replaced by compostable products. The aim of the research was to assess the biological disintegration of selected single-use products under real conditions of urban composting facility. All tested products are established for the Slovak market as 100% compostable by a composting facility. The eight selected products from five different producers were placed into a composting pile of the urban composting facility for 12 weeks. The samples were visually inspected on a regular basis. Temperature and humidity of the pile were continuously measured at the same time. Three samples from each kind of tested product were analyzed, 3 pieces of filter paper were used as the reference samples. The research showed that all tested products were completely or partially disintegrated during the considered period. The average degree of the disintegration of 90% was not reached for one producer only.
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