Composting processes

Newly heightened concerns or realizations about climate change, depletion of stratospheric ozone, environmental pollution, wildlife, shrinking bio-diversity, health, food safety, land degradation, pressures on nonrenewable resources and intergenerational justice, have vindicated the sustainable development ethos expressed by the Brundtland Commission in its report, ‘Our Common Future’. In practical terms, the new paradigm promoted the 4R strategy of Reduce, Re-use, Recover and Recycle wastes to conserve resources and reduce pollution by emulating, adopting and maximizing beneficial processes of an ecosystem. An ecosystem is maintained in essence by the cycling of carbon and mineral nutrients so that the losses of nutrients from the system are not greater than the relevant mineral ions gained through soil weathering and the nitrogen fixed by biological agents or the electrochemical force in lightning.