Composting of Fresh Olive-Mill Wastewater Added to Plant Residues

Vast amounts of olive-mill wastewaters (OMW) are produced in Mediterranean countries causing very serious environmental problems either through spreading on agricultural land or storage in ponds. A wide variety of technological treatments are available to reduce their polluting effects and for their transformation into valuable products (Fiestas Ros de Ursinos and Borja Padilla,1992). However, very few data, if any, have been published on OMW composting. This paper reports a methodological approach for transforming these wastewaters into organic fertilizers by letting them be absorbed by plant waste materials which were later composted.