3. Composting

3.1 Objectives and principles

Composting is the aerobic biological treatment of organic waste to achieve one or more of the following objectives:

• mineralization of the most biodegradable fraction, leading to a more stable residual material and thus reducing the waste's potential environmental and health impacts;

• reduction of waste mass and volume;

• production of compost that can be used as an organic soil improver.

Composting generally involves two biological stages (figure 1...