Study on Bio-Fertilizer Extraction and Management of Municipal Solid Waste of Khulna City

Abstract

The increasing population of Bangladesh leads to the growth of urban areas and slums which in turn, generating a huge volume of wastes. Thus disposal of waste has become a serious issue. In this project, generation and characteristics of municipal solid waste in Khulna city has been analyzed along with the associated environmental impacts and existing municipal waste management practices. Main focus is given on bio-fertilizer extraction from municipal solid waste comparing with a few solid waste management projects. The main objective of the study is to achieve the knowledge of solid waste management procedure in Khulna city and find out the best possible way of bio-fertilizer extraction from the study of those projects. Major portion of municipal solid waste of Khulna City is organic which are rapidly biodegradable. Because of unsatisfactory solid waste management system in Khulna city, some common problems usually occurs such as diseases, fire hazards, odor for nuisance atmosphere, water pollution and consequently economic losses. At the same time, those wastes have a potential value of producing organic bio-fertilizer. This potential factor makes interest to study the composting procedure from municipal solid waste and find out efficient way to do it. The total daily household wastes generated in Khulna City areas is about 500 tons and from this total waste daily 200 tons for compost production is possible. But only 1.5 tons of compost is producing per day in Rajbandh by RUSTIC and generating 10,000 taka profits. Again the waste produces in Khulna University of Engineering & Technology at the rate of 3898 kg/month of which 65.09% are compostable. Current compost generation in KUET is only 50 kg/month because of small area and limited waste production. The finished product in Rajbandh and KUET is also different because of waste composition, separation process and production process. However waste in KUET is well managed and the whole process is closely monitored but in the other hand solid waste management process in Khulna City Corporation is very poor. In this context, to meet up the growing demand of biofertilizer, it is the best way to use renewable resources like municipal solid waste. It can help to create a modern waste well managed beautiful city and will make an example. With better management plan and realistic approach, compost generation from municipal solid waste could be economically profitable and save the environment.