
The Composting Handbook
A how-to and why manual for farm, municipal, institutional and commercial composters
Description
Key Features
- Created in conjunction with the Compost Research and Education Foundation (CREF)
- Includes the latest information on composting and compost, providing the first comprehensive resource in decades
- Written with focus on both academic and industrial insights and advances
Readership
Agriculture/Agribusiness professionals, composting facility managers and operators, prospective managers and operators, regulators, policy makers, environmental advocates, waste generators and managers and generally people interested in composting as a business or a solution. Possible textbook for college courses and a supplemental text for training courses about composting or organic waste management
Table of Contents
- Cover image
- Title page
- Table of Contents
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Authors and Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments and appreciations
- Chapter 1. Why compost?
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Benefits and drawbacks of composting
- 3. Economic benefits of composting
- 4. Environmental benefits of composting
- 5. The drawbacks
- 6. Facts and fiction of composting and compost
- Chapter 2. Enterprise planning
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Starting a composting enterprise
- 3. Assessing your resources
- 4. SWOT analysis
- 5. Defining success—start with the end in mind
- 6. Scoping out availability of feedstocks and markets for compost
- 7. Determine compost facility regulatory requirements
- 8. Planning human resource needs of a compost enterprise
- 9. Production planning—the business of manufacturing
- 10. Financial strategy—the business of business
- 11. Enterprise planning—case study
- Chapter 3. The composting process
- 1. Introduction
- 2. What happens during composting?
- 3. Changes in the materials during composting
- 4. Factors affecting the composting process
- 5. Curing
- 6. When is it done?
- 7. Composting microbiology
- Chapter 4. Compost feedstocks
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Feedstock value
- 3. Feedstock characteristics
- 4. Feedstock contaminants
- 5. Biodegradability
- 6. Combining feedstocks—amendments and recipes
- 7. Determining feedstock characteristics
- 8. Common feedstocks for composting
- Chapter 5. Passively aerated composting methods, including turned windrows
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Passively aerated static piles
- 3. Techniques to improved passive aeration—passively aerated windrow system and natural aeration static pile
- 4. Turned windrow composting
- Chapter 6. Forced aeration composting, aerated static pile, and similar methods
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Aerated static pile
- 3. Variations of aerated static piles
- 4. Methods combining turning and forced aeration of windrows and piles
- Chapter 7. Contained and in-vessel composting methods and methods summary
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Basic principles
- 3. Agitated bays
- 4. Turned/agitated vessels
- 5. Aerated beds and bays in buildings and halls
- 6. Silos
- 7. Rotating drums
- 8. Tunnels
- 9. Moveable and modular aerated containers
- 10. Methods for on-site composting of food waste
- 11. Summary: comparing the composting methods
- Chapter 8. Composting animal mortalities
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Mortality composting—basic principles
- 3. Pathogen elimination, risk management, and regulatory requirements
- 4. Feedstock characteristics and requirements
- 5. Methods and techniques
- 6. Sizing guidelines for passively aerated piles and bins
- 7. Other mortality composting methods
- 8. Managing mortality composting operations
- Chapter 9. Composting operations and equipment
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Material handling equipment
- 3. Feedstock receiving and handling
- 4. Amendment handling and storage
- 5. Feedstock preprocessing
- 6. Composting operations
- 7. Curing
- 8. Postprocessing
- 9. Finished compost storage
- 10. Blending compost products
- 11. Bagging
- Chapter 10. Site planning, development, and environmental protection
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Compost-site regulations
- 3. Environmental and community considerations
- 4. Site selection/evaluation
- 5. Site development
- 6. Site layout
- 7. Composting pad construction
- 8. How much space? Estimating the area for composting
- 9. Building—roofs and enclosures
- 10. Handling run-on/runoff
- Chapter 11. Process management
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Odor
- 3. Temperature
- 4. Monitoring moisture content
- 5. Oxygen and carbon dioxide monitoring
- 6. Bulk density and free air space
- 7. Monitoring pH
- 8. Monitoring soluble salts (electrical conductivity)
- 9. Conservation of nitrogen and organic matter
- Chapter 12. Odor management and community relations
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Odor regulations—“All Over the Map”
- 3. The nature of composting odors
- 4. The anatomy of an odor problem
- 5. The nature of the nuisance
- 6. Minimizing odors through site selection and management
- 7. Odor generation during composting
- 8. Strategies to reduce the generation of odors
- 9. Capture and control of odors once generated
- 10. Capture
- 11. Odor migration and dispersal
- 12. Neighbor and community relations—complaints and more
- 13. Odor characterization and measurement
- Chapter 13. Safety and health principles and practices for composting facilities
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Hierarchy of controls
- 3. Safety and health regulations
- 4. Safety concerns at composting sites
- 5. Physiological health concerns
- 6. Biological and chemical health concerns
- 7. Prevention and preparedness
- Chapter 14. Facility management
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Administrative functions
- 3. Managing the carbon footprint
- 4. Weights and measures
- 5. Materials analysis
- 6. Managing with the weather/seasons
- 7. Preventing and managing fires
- 8. Preventing and managing nuisance conditions
- Chapter 15. Compost characteristics and quality
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Typical, and typically variable, compost product qualities
- 3. Compost performance characteristics
- 4. Aesthetic characteristics
- 5. Safety characteristics
- 6. Compost quality standards
- 7. Compost testing assurance
- 8. Laboratory analysis of compost products
- Chapter 16. Compost use
- 1. Introduction
- 2. General considerations for compost use
- 3. Compost application rates
- 4. Equipment for spreading compost
- 5. Specific agricultural, horticultural, and forestry applications
- 6. Nursery and greenhouse applications
- 7. Turf and landscape applications
- 8. Erosion control and stormwater management
- Chapter 17. Compost use for plant disease suppression
- 1. Introduction
- Chapter 18. Compost marketing and sales
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Marketplace for compost
- 3. The Product(s)—compost(s)
- 4. Marketing concepts
- 5. Market options
- 6. Market planning
- 7. Compost sales
- Chapter 19. Composting economics
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Economics overview
- 3. The big picture
- 4. Economics of compost use
- Appendices
- Sources of photographs and external graphics
- Index
Product details
- No. of pages: 1002
- Language: English
- Copyright: © Academic Press 2021
- Published: December 3, 2021
- Imprint: Academic Press
- eBook ISBN: 9780323856034
- Paperback ISBN: 9780323856027
About the Editors
Robert Rynk
Affiliations and Expertise
Ginny Black
Affiliations and Expertise
Jane Gilbert
Affiliations and Expertise
Johannes Biala
Affiliations and Expertise
Jean Bonhotal
Affiliations and Expertise
Mary Schwarz
Affiliations and Expertise
Leslie Cooperband
Affiliations and Expertise
Ratings and Reviews
Latest reviews
(Total rating for all reviews)
JAJANG S. Wed Jun 29 2022
The Composting Book
it was amazing book with complete literature, discussion, finding and innovation, however, I am studying on my PhD on composting, I am still researching on composting technique of application, so then the composting product with the microbes can survive and maximize to improve the soil quality and nutrient stock at period of time. I didnt see it in the book. hope my research complete soon and will be submitted my original-manuscript to change the world of mind on composting application technique. Thank you very much for providing the Book.
scion a. Thu Mar 24 2022
Composting Handbook
Good info, readable formatting.