Management and Processing of Waste Generated In UTP Cafeterias

Management and processing of waste is motivated by concern for public health in this
case the public being the community of UTP. The problem of waste management at the
university is evident from the stagnant dirty water (which is direct result food waste)
found in the open channels that come from the cafeterias. This raises concerns about the
health and aesthetics of the campus and this is a problem that needs a solution. The
management and processing of waste generated at canteens was tried to be solved by
application of the composting process. The waste was collected from the busiest and
biggest canteen (village four) on campus. After the collection it was transported to the
com posting site behind block 13 for the start of the com posting. The waste generated at
these canteens consists of food waste, plastics, cardboards, tins and cans. Their
compositions by percentage weight are 69, 14, 9 and 8% respectively. Food waste
contains the most energy with a value of 137 667.9 kJ daily and the total energy that can
be recovered amounts to 445 344.9 kJ. Yard waste is one of the largest wastes generated
at UTP and it was used mainly to adjust the C/N ratio by providing a high carbon
concentration to balance nitrogen rich food waste. Sludge is also used in some of the
experimental runs as way to determine if the introduction of microorganisms has an
etTect compared to naturally occurring composting. The parameters used to monitor the
process were moisture content, temperature, pH and C/N ratio. Eight different batches
consisting of different compositions of feedstock were used in order to find the right
mixture of the feedstock which will be recommended for the actual processing of the
waste. Four of these eight bathes commenced naturally and in the other four microbes
was introduced in the form sludge. pH f1uctuated around the neutral value for almost all
the batches. Batches with bigger percentage of yard waste were poor in maintaining any
moisture and the more food waste a batch contained the better in maintaining the
moisture. Temperature was not a useful parameter as it did not deviate much around the
surrounding environment temperature of 28°C. A tier seven weeks it was that the addition
of sludge had no effect in the process. After comparing the batches' physical
characteristics batch C (food waste: 60%, yard waste: 40%) was the best performing
batch with batch A (I 00% food waste) being the worst performing batch.