Greenhouse gas emission of organic waste composting: a case study of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia green campus flagship project

Abstract

Waste generation nowadays is rising in the world and it seems hard to prevent it. Solid Waste Management (SWM) has been a major problem worldwide in most of the fast growing towns and cities among the developing countries all around the world. Food waste and green waste constitute high volumes of municipal solid waste (MSW). The application of compost in the agricultural sector can contribute to sustainable soil health and other co-benefits. The compost produced from biological waste does not contain any chemicals unfavorable to living soil. The objective of this research was to calculate the greenhouse gas emission from the compost processed from the food and green wastes generated on-campus in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) as a pilot project. The result indicated that the composting process promotes the university as a green campus by converting organic wastes into valuable products such as organic fertilizer.