Optimizing household waste composting: A comparative study of activators in rotary communal composters for sustainable waste management

Indonesian landfills have a shorter lifespan due to the burgeoning amounts of mixed waste.The government should apply locally adaptable, simple, and affordable techniques for waste recycling.This study aimed to optimize the performance of community composters based on the various activators used.Within such a context, the systems will be designed to cope with household waste, mainly dominated by organic biodegradable waste.In the research, testing was done on three activators: mature compost, effective microorganism 4 (EM-4), and Promi.The last two are commercial compost activators.This research is a follow-up to the earlier studies that used the best rotary communal composter design: compact, space-and area-saving, mobile, odourless, and pleasurable.The testing comprised analyses of the compost maturity, quantity, and quality.Accordingly, it showed that the best quality compost was obtained with an activator of EM-4 within only 16 days.Interestingly, the inclusion of mature compost as an activator gave a relatively short duration of 18 days, therefore displaying competitive performance in terms of EM-4.This study shows that the application of EM-4 in rotary communal composter is the most preferred technique for the management of biodegradable waste at a community level.