Historical Review of Composting and its Role in Municipal Waste Management

Simply stated, the role of composting in waste management is to be a productive option for the treatment and disposal of biodegradable waste. This paper focuses on two major categories of biodegradable wastes - they are: 1) the solid waste generated by households, businesses, and light industry (municipal solid waste (MSW)); and 2) settleable waste water solids, i.e., dewatered sewage sludge. Sewage sludge (‘biosolids’) is included because it is a major municipal waste which, if not managed properly, can very adversely affect environmental quality and public health. Because it is an option in solid waste management, the vicissitudes of composting mirror those of MSW management. This paper explores and attempts to explain and illustrate the role of composting as a waste management option. It does this by tracing the chronological status and development of waste management and composting and analyzes their interrelation. For purposes of this presentation, the chronology of this combination is somewhat arbitrarily divided into three broad, loosely defined periods; namely, 1930–1940, 1950–1960, and 1970-current.