Environment Agency review of methods for determining organic waste biodegradability and municipal waste diversion.

摘要

The Environment Agency is required to regulatethe landfilling of biodegradable organic wastesand their diversion from landfilling. Simple, costeffective, reliable and widely applicable methodsfor the measurement of organic waste and itsbiodegradability are needed for this activity. Areview of such methods was carried out in order toselect promising methods for an experimentalscreening exercise. The review considered bothbiological and non-biological methods includingsimple methods that may provide a surrogatemeasurement of waste biodegradability instead ofthe time-consuming biological methods. Thebiological methods selected for further evaluationwere the aerobic specific oxygen uptake rate(SOUR) and dynamic respiration index (DRI)tests, and the anaerobic biochemical methanepotential (BMP) test.The non-biological methods selected for furtherevaluation were dry matter (DM), loss on ignition(LOI), total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen(TN), water extractable dissolved organic carbon(DOC), BOD and COD, the lignin and cellulosecontent and the cellulase hydrolysis method.These tests are being evaluated on a wide varietyof typical organic materials that might be found inmunicipal solid waste (MSW) such as newspapercorrugated paper, compost, kitchen waste(vegetable and animal), garden wastes (grass andtwigs), nappies, cotton and wool textiles.