Biotechnology and Waste - Environmental Biotechnology: Theory and Application - page 186

based on the concentrations of six key classes of micro-organisms present (Bess,
1999). The marketing of biowaste derived products is made more difficult by
a number of factors which lie outside of the scope of this work, most partic-
ularly a lack of a recognised and universally agreed standard. The application
of microbiological criteria, in conjunction with the likes of mineral analysis and
maturity assessment, could lead to significantly better overall characterisation of
composts. Moreover, there seems no reason why this approach should not be
extended to all biowaste-derived soil amendments, enabling direct comparisons
to be made and the suitability of any given product for a particular use to be
measured objectively.
Applying Composting to Waste Management
Composting has an appeal to local authorities needing to meet diversion targets
while keeping a watch on their budgets, since it is relatively simple and does
not demand particularly high resource investment, either to set up or run. As
a consequence, many of the initiatives instigated to deal with biowaste have
been based on composting of one form or another. In the broadest of terms, such
schemes fall into one of two categories, namely, home composting, or centralised
facilities. The focus of this section will fall on the latter, as a more representative
application of biotechnology, though to set this in context, it is worth giving a
brief outline of the former.
Home composting
Home based systems differ little in reality from the traditional gardener's
approach, putting biodegradable material into a heap or, more typically a bin,
often provided free or at a subsidised price, by the local council. Though this
does have the advantage of directly involving people in the disposal of their
own waste and the informality of this approach has its own advantages, such
schemes are not without certain drawbacks. To work, these initiatives draw
heavily on householder goodwill and competence, not to mention a good choice
of bin and simply making the means available does not, of course, ensure that it
will be used. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many bins lie unused within two
years, once the initial enthusiasm wears off, and an investigation into Luton's
trial scheme suggested that home composting may make little difference to
the overall amount of waste generated (Wright, 1998). The kind of instant
minimisation popularly supposed would seem to be far from guaranteed.
One clear advantage that household composters do have, however, is the ability
to control very closely what goes into their system. This avoids both the issues
of contamination and the need for post-user segregation typically foisted on the
operators of centralised facilities. Thus, although domestic initiatives of this kind
are unlikely ever to make the sort of difference to biowaste treatment demanded