Comparison of heavy metals content in compost against vermicompost of organic solid waste: Past and present

Disposal of the municipal organic solid waste is a serious problem worldwide. Composting is one of the most preferred methods of solid waste management practice, principally due to the high percentage of organic material in the waste composition. Composting has advantages over land-filling and incineration in Mauritius because of lower operational costs, less environmental pollution, beneficial use of the end product, high humidity and organic content of household waste. Vermicomposting is a comparatively enhanced method in composting, and involves the stabilization of organic solid waste through earthworm consumption that converts the waste into earthworm castings. In both composting and vermicomposting processes, the presence of heavy metals and different toxics substances limits its land use without processing. The production and application of compost potentially contaminate the environment with heavy metals. There is a high-degree of consensus in the past and present literatures that composting increases metal concentrations but whether similar changes in metal concentration and availability occur during vermicomposting has not been fully resolved. This review deals with various total metal contents present in composting compared to that present in vermicomposting of organic solid wastes from past and present years. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.