Accelerated biodegradation of solid organic waste through biostimulation

A huge amount of solid organic waste is generated daily in cities,causing disposal and environmental problems. it is critical to manage these wastes in cost effective and environment friendly manners. biostimulation,i.e.,addition of nutrients to enhance efficacy of indigenous microorganisms,is an effective approach to enhance degradation rate of organic wastes. in our study,this approach was used to accelerate the biodegradation of household solid organic waste. rate of degradation was monitored by observing a decrease in carbon (c)/nitrogen (n) ratio. a decrease in c/n ratio was observed (p<0.05) when the waste material was amended with n and phosphorus (p),in a ratio of 50:2:2 during 40-day degradation process. other physico-chemical parameters,like ph,electrical conductivity,total organic c,total n and microbial counts increased compared to control (p<0.05) during the incubation process. thus,this study revealed that biostimulation strategy could effectively enhance degradation rate of solid organic waste. © pakistan academy of sciences.