development of methods for the treatment and reuse of municipal ...

DEVELOPMENT OF METHODS FOR THE TREATMENT
AND REUSE OF MUNICIPAL AND AGRICULTURAL
SOLID WASTE APPROPRIATE FOR RURAL I SUBURBAN
HOUSEHOLDS
Thesis submitted
for the award of the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
in
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
by
S.Gajalakshmi alias Suja
Under the guidance of
Dr S.A. Abbasi, PhD, DSC, FIE, FIIC~E, FIPHE
Senior Professor 8 Director
Centre For Pollution Control & Energy Technology
Pondicherry (Central) University
Pondicherry 605 014, India
September 2002

. DSc FPHE FIE PE
Senor Pralessor B Direclor
l'ONl~l~lll~l~l~~ LINIVI~I

DECLARATION
I hereby submit that the thesis entitled " Development of methods for the
treatment and reuse of municipal and agricultural solid waste
appropriate for rural I suburban households " submitted to Pondicherry
University for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy is a
record of original work done by me under the guidance of Senior Professor
S.A. Abbasi, Director, Centre for pollution Control and Energy
Technology, Pondicherry University, and that it has not formed the basis
for the award of any other degreelcertificate or any other title by any
University I Institution before.
Date: (95 o? oZ
Place: Pondicherry
&, kj&~oAl,L/\7-
(S-Gajalaks mi alias Suja)

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List of Tables ................................................................................... i
List of Figures ................................................................................. .vi
List of Plates .................................................................................... .x
Part I - Introduction
Chapter 1
Introduction: Municipal solid waste (MSW), weeds, and agrowaste ............ .1
Chapter 2
Treatment /.disposal methods ........................................................... .I1
Chapter 3
Composting and vermicomposting. ..................................................... .17
The present work and organization of thesis .......................................... 39
Part II - Vermicomposting of water hyacinth
Chapter 4
Screening of the earthworm species suitable for vermicomposting
Chapter 5
water hyacinth .................................................................... ..45
Effect of feed particle size and 'toughness' on vermiconversion ............... ..50
Chapter 6
Effect of cowdung supplement on vermiconversion ................................. 55
Chapter 7
Composting of water hyacinth to enhance its acceptability as worm
feed and effect of earthworm density on the reactor efficiency .......... ..60

Part Ill - Vermicomposting of paper waste
Chapter 8
Screening of the suitable earthworm species for vermicomposting
Chapter 9
paper waste .............................................................................. 69
Vermicomposting of paper waste with the anecic earthworm
Lampito mauritii Kinberg ........................................................... ,76
Chapter 70
Effect of cowdung supplement on vermiconversion ................................. 82
Chapter 11
Effect of earthworm density on the reactor efficiency .............................. 88
Chapter 12
Effect of vermibed composition on the reactor performance ................... 100
Chapter 13
Vermiconversion of biowaste by earthworms born and grown in
reactors fed with paper waste compared to the pioneers
raised to adulthood on cowdung feed .......................................... 108
Part IV - Vermicomposting of leaf litter
Chapter 14
Composting-vermicomposting of the leaf litter ensuing from
the trees of mango ( Mangifera indica ). ..................................... ,116
Chapter15
Neem leaves as a source of fertilizer-cum-pesticide vermicompost ......... ,129

Part V - Assessment of impact of verrnicast
generated from reactors fed with water hyacinth1
neem leaves on plant growth
Chapter 16
Effect of the application of water hyacinth compost I vermicompost
on the growth and flowering of Crossandra undulaefolia
and on several vegetables ....................................................... ,137
Chapter 17
Effect of the application of neem vermicompost on the growth
of thevegetable plant, Solanurn rnelongena Linn ........................... 144
Part VI - Extension of know-how at village I suburban levels
Chapter 18
Extension of the developed know-how at village 1 suburban
households ........................................................................... 150
Chapter 19
Collection and treatment of municipal solid waste at Pondicherry
University campus .................................................................. ,177

LIST OF TABLES
Chapter I
Table I Waste generation, per capita, in India .................................. ,,,5
Table 2 Typical composition of municipal soild waste in India .................. 5
Chapter 3
Table 1 Summary of characteristics used by Bouche (1977)
to distinguish ecological type of earthworms ......................... ..25
Chapter 4
Table 1 Generation of vermicasts (% of feed mass) per 15
days by the four earthworm species, with chopped
fresh water hyacinth:cowdung as feed ................................. ..46
Table 2 Worm biomass, g, in reactors, as a function of time ............. 46
Table 3 Number of new offspring recorded each fortnight in
various reactors ............................................................... .47
Chapter 5
Table I Reproducibility of the reactor performance: illustrative
example of vermicast output (g) per fortnight in
duplicate reactors fed with 75 g of precomposted
water hyacinth per fortnight ................................................. 52
Chapter 6
Table 1 Recovery of vermicast as a function of time in low-rate
reactors (1,II) with the feed WH:CD in 4:l ratio ....................... .56
Table 2 Recovery of vermicast as a function of time in low-rate
reactors (I,II) with the feed WH:CD in 5:l ratio .......................... 57

Table 3 Recovery of vermicast as a function of time in low-rate
reactors (I,II) with the feed WH:CD in 6:l ratio ......................... 57
Table 4 Recovery of vermicast as a function of time in high-rate
reactors (1,ll) with the feed WH:CD in 6:l ratio ........................ 59
Chapter 7
Table 1 Average vermicast from duplicate reactors operated
at a feed loading rate of 1 kg per 10 days; the recovery
has been expressed as % of feed mass ............................... 61
Table 2 Average net increase in worm zoomass in different
reactors,g .................................................................... ,62
Table 3 Reproduction (average of cumulative number of
offspring) produced in different reactors ............................... 63
Chapter 8
Table 1 Recovery of vermicasts (%) each fortnight ............................ 71
Table 2 Increase in worm biomass (grams) per fortnight
................................................................
over six months 73
Table 3 Number of offspring generated each fortnight over
6 months ................... . .................................................. 74
Chapter 9
Table I Recovery of vermicasts (%) as a function of time .................... 78
Table 2 Number of earthworms found in the reactors each
fortnight ........................................................................ ..80

Chapter 10
Table I Recovery of vermicastings with paper:cowdung 4:l as
feed in low-rate digesters ... . .. . .. ... ... ... ... . , . .. , .... , . . ., .. . .. . . .. .. . ... 83
Table 2 Recovery of vermicastings with paper:cowdung 5:l as
feed in low-rate digesters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . , . . . , .,, , , . . , , . , , . . , , . , . . . ... 83
Table 3 Recovery of vermicastings with paper:cowdung 6:l as
feed in low-rate digesters ... .. . ... . .. .. . ... ... . .. ... ...... .. . .. . . .. ... .. . ... 84
Table 4 A typical set of results from a duplicate run with 4:l
paper:cowdung, as feed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
Table 5 Recovery of vermicastings with paper:cowdung 4:l as
feed in high-rate digesters . .. . . . . . . ... ... . . . .. . , .. ,. . ..., .. .. . . . , , .. .. , . , . .85
Table 6 Recovery of vermicastings with paper:cowdung 5:l as
feed in high-rate digesters .. . . . . ... . .. . . . ... ... ... ... ..... . .. . . .. ... . ., .. . .86
Table 7 Recovery of vermicastings with paper:cowdung 6:l as
feed in high-rate digesters .. . . . . . .. . .. . . . .. . ... ... .. , ,,... . . . . . .. .. . .. . . , ..86
Chapter 11
Table 1 Vermicast output in reactors with 250 worms
(62.5 worms per litre) . . . . .. . . . . .. ... . . . . , , ... . . . ,.. . .. ... . .. .. . ... , .. .. . ... 91
Table 2 Vermicast output in reactors with 450 worms
(1 12.5 worms per litre) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..92
Table 3 Vermicast output in reactors with 650 worms
(1 62.5 worms per litre) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~. . . , . . ... . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..93
Table 4 Increase in worm zoomass,g,during seven months ... ... .......... 97
Table 5 Number of offspring generated in seven months ... ...... ... ... ...... 98

Chapter 12
Table 1 Vermicast output in low-rate vermireactors with
conventional and modified vermibeds ................................ 103
Table 2 Vermicast output in high-rate vermireactors with
conventional and modified vermibeds ............................... ,105
Chapter 13
Table 1 Recovery of vermicasts (% of feed mass) every
15 days from the vermireactors run on 'parent'
earthworms and their adult offspring ................................... 11 1
Chapter 14
Table 1 Recovery of vermicast (g, kg" feed) every 10 days from
reactors operated at different earthworm densities ............... 121
Table 2 Increase in worm zoomass each month in reactors
operated with 62.5 worms 1.' and 75 worms 1.' .................. ..I24
Table 3 Number of offspring produced each month in reactors
operated with 62.5 worms and 75 worms I"' ..................... 125
Table 4 Decline in CIN ratio during the composting process ............ ..I27
Table 5 CIN ratio of the vermicompost harvested from each run ......... 127
Chapter 15
Table 1 Recovery of vermicast in reactors with 250 animals ............. 131
Table 2 Recovery of vermicast in reactors with 300 animals ............ 132

Chapter 16
Tablel Effect of application of water hyacinth compost/vermicompost
on the growth of Crossandra (Crossandra undulaefolia) . . . . . . . . . ,141
Chapter 17
Tablel Effect of application of neem vermicompost on the
growth and yield of brinjal (Solanum melogena Linn) ... ... ... ..... 147

LIST OF FIGURES
Figural Waste generated in 1999; 230 million tons ........................... ..3
Figure 2 Trends in MSW generation 1960 - 1999 ..................................... 3
Chapter 2
Figure 1 Four main stages of anaerobic digestion ................................. 15
Chapter 4
Figure 1 Recovery of vermicasts (YO) each fortnight by (a) E.eudrilus
(b) P.excavatus (c) L.mauritii (d) D. willsi .................................. .47
Figure 2 Number of juveniles produced by 20 animals of (a) E.eudrilus
(b) P.excavatus (c) L.mauritii (d) D. willsi over six months ........... .48
Chapter 5
Figure I Production of vermicasts (% of feed mass) by E.eugeniae in
reactors fed with different forms of water hyacinth Vermicast
recovery as a function of time .............................................. ..52
Figure 2 Vermicast recovery as a function of time ................................... 53
Figure 3 Net increase in worm zoomass and number of offspring produced
in reactors fed with different forms of water hyacinth .................. 54
Chapter 6
Figure 1 Vermicast recovery (castings produced in each run from
75 g of feed, expressed in percentage) as functions of
worm density and time ................................. . ................. .58

Chapter 7
Figure 1 Vermicast output, zoomass gained, number of offspring
produced as function of worm density ..................................... 63
Chapter 8
Figure 1 Recovery (%) of vermicast by (a) D.willsi (b) E.eugeniae
(c) L.mauritii (d) P.excavatus ................................................ ..72
Chapter 9
Figure 1 Recovery of vermicasts (% of feed mass) with the feeds
(a) paper:cowdung::4:l (b) paper:cowdung::5:1
(c) paper:cowdung::6:1 ........................................................ ..79
Figure 2 Worm zoomass increase in seven months ............................... 79
Figure 3 Net increase in earthworm zoomass ......................................... 79
Chapter 10
Figure 1 Number of offspring generated and increase in the
earthworm zoomass each month in low-rate reactors ............... ..84
Figure 2 Number of offspring generated and increase in the
earthworm zoomass each month in high-rate reactors .............. .87
Chapter 11
Figure 1 Vermicast output, zoomass gained, number of offspring produced as
a function of won density ..................................................... 95
Figure 2 Vermicast output(as % of feed mass) in (a) reactors with
62.5 worms per litre (b) reactors with 112.5 worms per
litre (c) reactors with 162.5 worms per litre .............................. 96

Chapter 12
Figure 1 Growth and reproduction of earthworms in low rate reactors ..... ,104
Figure 2 Growth and reproduction of earthworms in high-rate reactors ...... 106
Chapter 13
Figure I Growth and reproduction of earthworms in six months ................. 112
Figure 2 Recovery of vermicasts as percentage of feed mass ................... 11 3
Chapter 14
Figure1 Recovery of vermicast (%) as functions of worm density
and time .......................................................................... ,123
Chapter 15
Figure 1 Growth and reproduction in reactors with different earthworm
Densities .......................................................................... 134
Chapter 18
Figure 1 Location of the villages where the know-how of cornposting
and vermicomposting was extended ...................................... 153
Figure 2 Various substrates studied at different sites: the character
'A' with the site numbers denotes Abishegapakkam ............... ..I57
Figure 3 Various substrates studied at different sites: the character
'S' with the site numbers denotes Seliamedu ........................ ..I 59
Figure 4 Variation in temperature during the cornposting of (a)water
hyacinth (b)Mangifera indica (c)Thespesia populnea .............. ,164
viii

Figure 5 Variation in temperature during the composting of (a) hay
(b) MSW ........................................................................... 165
Figure 6 Variation in pH during the cornposting of (a)water
hyacinth (b)Mangifera indica (c)Thespesia populnea .............. ,166
Figure 7 Variation in pH during the composting of (a) hay
(b) MSW .......................................................................... 167
Figure 8 CIN ratio of the composffvermicompost obtained from
different sites with (a) water hyacinth (b)Thespesia
populnea (c) Mangifera indica ............................................. 168
Figure 9 CIN ratio of the composffvermicompost obtained from
different sites with a) hay (b) MSW as substrates ....................... 169
Figure10 Variation in temperature during the composting of (a)water
hyacinth (b lpomoea camea (c) Mangifera indica ........................ 170
Figure11 Variation in temperature during the composting of
(a) sugarcane (b)hay (c)Thespesia populnea .............................. 171
Figure12 Variation in pH during the cornposting of (a)water
hyacinth (b lpomoea camea (c) Mangifera indica ....................... 172
Figure13 Variation in pH during the composting of
(a) sugarcane (b)hay (c)Thespesia populnea i ............................ 173
Figure14 CIN ratio of the composffvermicompost obtained from
different sites with (a) water hyacinth (b) lpomoea
camea (c) Mangifera indica ....................................................... ,174
Figure15 CIN ratio of the composffvermicompost obtained from
different sites with (a) sugarcane (b) hay
(c) Thespesia populnea .............................................................. ,175

LIST OF PLATES
Chapter 78
Plate 1 and 2 Imparting the know-how of composting I vermicomposting
to a group of students (above) and at household level (below) ............ 152
Plate 3 Monitoring of the village extension program ...... .............,..., ,,..,,.,.,...,,., 156
Plate 4 Harvesting of vermicompost for field application at a household ........ 156
Chapter 19
Plate 1 and 2 A pair of trash bins provided at each location. The bin coded
green is meant for biodegradable waste and the bin coded red is for
non-biodegradable waste (above); and segregation of the collected
waste at the processing site (below) ... .. . . .. . .. ... ... .,. ..................... I 78
Plate 3 Composting of the collected waste at the processing site .......... ......... 180
Plate 4 Sieving of the harvested vermicompost .................... . .................... I80

Part I
Introduction

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION: MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE (MSW),
1.0 SOLID WASTES
WEEDS, AND AGROWASTE
Solid wastes consist of solid and semi-solid wastes generated during day-to-
day living, and industrial, agricultural, and mining activities.
Based on the treatability, wastes can be categorized into biodegradable and
non-biodegradable. Biodegradable wastes consist of all such carbonaceous
wastes that can be biodegraded into useful and lor less polluting products by
the action of microorganisms, plants, and animals. Non-biodegradable
wastes are not amenable to biodegradation: these include inorganic wastes;
and non-degradable polymeric organic like certain types of plastics (Abbasi,
1999).
1.1 Biowaste degradation in nature
In nature, such of this waste which is biodegradable is being treated all the
time; the waste is converted to useful andlor harmless products by the action
of microorganisms, annelids, insects, solar radiation etc. But, in the natural
scheme of things is only a certain quantity of waste can be handled
effectively in this manner. When the quantity of wastes exceeds these limits,
nature is unable to handle the excess pollution load. Hence ways to
utilize/process these wastes must be explored.
1.2 Reuse of wastes
Many fancy names can be given to the attempts one makes for converting a
waste to a resource - cash from trash, dollars from dirt, money from muck,
goid from garbage, rupees from rubbish, value from waste ... etc etc. It
sounds exciting, this getting something out of nothing, but it is easier said than
done. It is one thing to develop a method of converting any waste to a

valuable product on laboratory scale; it is quite another thing to do so
economically and on a large scale. And to do so without generating
secondary environmental problems is an even bigger challenge. No wonder
then, that in spite of so much talk about waste utilization, very large quantities
of wastes still go unutilized. This not only leaves the problems of waste
disposal in our hands but also leaves for us the problems caused by such
spin off as mosquitoes, rodents, and plague (Abbasi and Ramasamy,2001).
2.0 MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE (MSW)
2.1 Municipal solid waste
The term 'municipal solid waste (MSW)' is commonly used for household
wastes, and waste of similar nature generated by small businesses, office,
institutions, markets, collected and disposed by local authorities (Koren and
Bisesi, 1999).
2.2 MSW generation in the world
The per capita generation of MSW varies between 2.75 and 4.0 kglday in
high-income countries, but is as little as 0.5 kglday in countries with the lowest
income levels. (ESCAP, 2000).
In 1999, residents of the USA, businesses and institutions produced more
than 230 million ton of MSW (Figure I), which is approximately 2.1 kg of
waste per person per day, up from 1.2 kg per person per day in 1960 as
shown in Figure 2.
MSW in developing countries has a higher proportion of organic matter and
ash, a higher moisture content and lower paper content, although refuse from
wealthier suburbs is similar in composition to West European wastes. Organic
matter and ash may account for between 60-85% of all wastes in low-income
settlementd(ESc~p, 2000).
It is anticipated that changes in the composition of municipal solid Waste in
developed countries would have occurred with increasing consumerism and

Wood 5.3%
Glass 5.5%.
RubberJeather and
tediles 6.6% 1
Metals 7.8% 1
Other :
Paper
38.1%
Figure I Waste generated in 1999; 230 million tons
0.5 ' -c- per capita waste generation per day (kg)
+total waste generation (mlllion tons)
0.0
1960 1970 1980 1990 1999
Year
Figure 2 Trends in MSW generation 1960 -- 1999 (ESCAP, 2000)

other changes in life style but little hard data is available to enable
quantification of this change. In general, the proportion of ash and grit has
decreased, while the proportion of plastics has been growing (ESCAP, 2000).
2.3 MSW generation In lndia
The daily per capita solid waste generated in lndia ranges from about 200
grams in small towns to 500 grams in large towns. The recyclable content of
wastes ranges from 13% to 20%. The waste generated per capita in lndia is
given in Table 1.
The characteristics of waste depend on a number of factors such as food
habits, cultural traditions of the inhabitants, lifestyles, climate etc. Table 2
presents the general characteristics of the waste.
Waste is usually collected in small bins by those who generate the waste.
Waste from these bins is then transferred to community bins either by those
who generate it or by private or municipal workers. Waste from community
bins is collected by trucks and dumped on land.
3.0 WEEDS AND AGROWASTE
3.1 Weeds
Weeds may be defined as fast growing plants which do not have commercial
value in the regions in which they proliferate.
3.1.1 Water hyacinth (Eichhomia crassipes)
Water hyacinth grows profusely in fresh water bodies, especially the ones
grossly polluted with biodegradable wastes. It is one of the most intransigent
weeds of the world (Abbasi, 1998; Tchobanoglous and Burton, 1999). It
multiplies to form large tracts of dense strands in a water-body, often pushing
the water out of sight.
Water hyacinth has successfully resisted all attempts of eradicating it by
chemical, biological, or hybrid means (Abbasi and Ramasamy, 1999). At

Table I Waste generation, per capita, in lndia (Singh, 1998)
Population
(lakhs)
1-5
5-1 0
10-20
20-50
above 50
Average per capita waste
(g I day)
Table 2 Typical composition of municipal solid waste in lndia (Singh, 1998)
r Description
% by weight
Vegetables, leaves
Grass
Paper
Plastic
Glass, ceramics
Metals
Stone ashes
Miscellaneous
210
250
270
350
500

present these methods succeed only in keeping the weed infestation in check
at enormous costs. Wherever water hyacinth is not controlled, due to limited
resources or other reasons, it rapidly covers all the water-bodies and
surrounding marshy areas in those regions. At an average annual productivity
of 50 dry (ash-free) tonnes per hectare per year, water hyacinth is one of the
most productive plants in the world (Abbasi and Nipaney, 1986; Abbasi and
Ramasamy, 1999). This attribute helps the weed to cover vast tracts of water
bodies faster than most other plants. Such colonization of wetlands leads to
rapid decline of the quantity and the quality of water contained in the wetlands
-eventually causing the loss of wetlands.
3.1.2 lpomoea camea
lpomoea carnea (also named 1.fistulosa) comes close to water hyacinth in
being a highly pernicious weed. An amphibious plant, it is fast emerging as
the most problematic of the aquatic weeds in Southern India and other regions
of the tropical world. This has happened because concerted efforts in these
regions to weaken the stranglehold of water hyacinth has unwittingly paved
the way for the invasion of I. camea . But, unlike other aquatic weeds like
water lily, duckweed, and water lettuce I. carnea is very hardy: its average
plant being much bigger, sturdier, and ligneous than the average plants of
other weeds mentioned above. These attributes make I. carnea much more
pernicious than other aquatic weeds.
3.2 Weed menace
Aquatic weeds cause immense harm to water resources by occupying lakes,
ponds and canals and thus reducing the carrying capacity of these water
bodies. The evapotranspiration by the weeds causes water loss several times
higher than the loss due to evaporation from weed - free surfaces. They
interfere with fisheries and inland navigation. They also harm the water
quality in several ways: cutting off sunlight from reaching the water; reducing
the dissolved oxygen levels of the water; polluting water through decay;
causing stagnation and thereby supporting growth of mosquitoes and flies;
impeding the growth of useful aquatic organisms such as fishes and prawns,
and so on. The combined impact of all these factors can be strong enough to

cause tremendous hardships to people and jeopardise the entire economy of
the affected region.
Attempts to destroy the weeds with chemicals or bioagents (insects, snails,
ducks, fishes, rat etc) have failed throughout the world. At best such attempts
only bring temporary relief because some or the other weed soon replaces
the destroyed one. Worst still, introduction of bioagents or chemicals on a
large scale carries the grave risk of ecological damage (Abbasi 1987). Among
the various anaerobic digestion technologies, multi-phase fermentation and
high-solids digestion are the most suitable techniques available for the
utilization of aquatic weeds to generate energy (Abbasi et al 1992a, 1992b;
Abbasi and Ramasamy 1996,1999; Ramasamy and Abbasi 2000). However,
all such weed-utilization processes ultimately lead to the following problems:
a) high volume of sludges (spent weed) are generated at the end of the
process. These solid biowastes poses severe threat to the environment and
public health if they are not properly disposed.
b) possibility of infestation of the weeds from the sludges (spent weed)due
to the presence of viable seeds or vegetative propagules (Abbasi and
Ramasamy, 1996).
3.3 Leaf litter ensuing from trees
Tree leaves falling on the ground play a very important role in the protection
and enrichment of soil. For example, leaf litter shields soil from the vagaries
of solar heat and wind erosion. It provides food to the soil microorganisms
and invertebrates who, in turn, return much of the nutrients contained in the
litter to the soil (Dash, 1993). Leaf litter also becomes a source of food to
higher organisms - for example birds feeding upon worms and insects
nurtured by the litter. Furthermore, leaf litter helps capture rainwater and
delay its run-off, thereby contributing to the soil moisture and groundwater
recharge (Abbasl and Ramasamy ,2001).
But leaf litter accumulating in urban and suburban locations such as sidewalks,
lawns, and playgrounds is deemed an unseemly sight. It is normally broomed off

into the piles of municipal solid waste (MSW), thereby adding to the overall
problem of MSW disposal. In India and several other countries in the Southern
hemisphere, leaf litter is often piled-up and set on fire. The resulting ash returns
some of the NPK content of the litter to the soil but much of nitrogen,
phosphorous, and organic carbon gets lost. The burning of litter also adds to air
pollution (Abbasi ,1999).
The following chapter deals with the various treatmenffdisposal methods.

References
Abbasi,S.A., 1987. Renewable energy from aquatic biomass In: Proceedings
of the 1986 International Congress on Renewable Energy Sources, CSIC,
Madrid.
Abbasi, S.A., 1998. Weeds of despair and hope. In: abbasi et a/, (Eds.)
Wetlands of India, Vol If, Discovery Publishing House, New Delhi, 12-21.
Abbasi,S.A., 1999. Environmental pollution and its control. Cogent
International. Philadelphia and Pondicherry, 442 pages.
Abbasi,S.A., and Nipaney, P.C., 1986, Infestation of aquatic weeds of the fern
genus Salvinia: its status and control. Environmental Conservation, 13, 235-
241.
Abbasi,S.A., and Ramasamy,E.V., 1996. Utilization of biowaste solids by
extracting volatile fatty acids with subsequent conversion to methane and
manure. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Solid
Waste Technology and Management. Philadelphia, pp 4C1-4C8.
Abbasi,S.A., and Ramasamy,E.V., 1999. Anaerobic digestion of high solid
waste. In: Proceedings of Eighth National Symposium on Environment.
IGCAR, Kalpakkam, India, 20-22 July, 220-224.
Abbasi,S.A., and Ramasamy,E.V., 2001. Solid waste management with
earthworms. Discovery Publishing house, New Delhi, 178 pages.
Abbasi,S.A., Nipaney,P.C., and Ramasamy, E.V., 1992a. Use of aquatic weed
Salvinia ( Salvinia molesta, Mitchell ) as full/partial feed in commercial biogas
digesters, Indian Journal of Technology, 30, 451 -457.

Abbasi,S.A., Nipaney,P.C., and Ramasamy,E.V., 1992b. Studies on multi-
phase anaerobic digestion of Salvinia, Indian Journal of Technology, 30, 483
- 490.
Dash,M.C., 1993. Fundamentals of Ecology. Tata Mc.Graw-Hill, New Delhi,
210 pages.
ESCAP, 2000. Solid waste In: Environment statistics course, Chapter 5 draft,
September, Bangkok:UN, 39 pages.
Koren,H., and Bisesi,M., 1999. Hand Book of Environmental Health and
Safety. Principles andpractices. Vol II, Lewis Publishers, London.
Ramasamy,E.V., and Abbasi,S.A., 2000. Enhancement in the treatment
efficiency and conversion to energy of dairy wastewater by augmenting CST
reactors with simple biofilm support systems. Environmental Technology, 22,
561-565.
Singh, K.S., 1998. Solid waste management : an overview. Environmental
Pollution Control Journal, Mar-April, 50-56.
Tchobanoglous, G., and Burton, F.I., 1999. Wastewater engineering
treatment, disposal and reuse. Tata Mc.Graw Hill Publishing Company, New
Delhi, 1334 pages.

Chapter 2
TREATMENT I DISPOSAL METHODS
Solid waste treatment aims at recovering useful substances or energy, reducing
waste volume, or stabilizing waste to reduce it's pollution potential and facilitate
disposal on land.
The available options for recovery of resource from waste can be classified into
two broad categories: one is the thermal option which include processes such as
incineration, production of refuse derived pellets, gasification etc. The other is the
biological option, which includes composting, vermicomposting and anaerobic
digestion.
Disposal is the final phase of solid waste management. The usual method of
disposing MSW is landfilling, prior to which recycling, energy recovery, volume
reduction is done.
The various treatment I disposal processes are given below.
1.0 RECYCLING
Recycling diverts items such as paper, glass, plastic, and metals, from the
wastestream. These materials are sorted, collected, and processed to transform
them into marketable products .
2.0 LANDFILLING
Landfilling, or more appropriately 'sanitary landfilling' is a systematic manner of
laying solid waste between layers of soil to facilitate the waste's gradual
decomposition.

Provided that there is no shortage of land with suitable geological fomlations,
landfill ought to be the principal final disposal route for the majority of wastes,
even in developing countries. Where there is treatment, it is usually designed to
reduce the volume of waste to be landfilled and includes compaction, shredding,
baling and incineration.
Most solid wastes can be directly disposed of in sanitary landfills. The prefix
"sanitary" is mainly to be understood as providing some protection for citizens
against airborne dust and litter, stench, rodents and insects. Most of these
nuisances can be prevented by the prompt covering of freshly dumped waste
with soil. However, to be able to call a waste tip or landfill "sanitary" from an
environmental viewpoint requires more measures to be taken.
The main environmental problem associated with landfilling is pollution of
groundwater. Rainwater percolating through solid waste tends to carry large
amounts of pollutants to groundwater aquifers if the underlying strata are
pewious or fissured. Thus, wells drawing from the aquifers will be extracting
groundwater contaminated by the leachate; such a situation is often difficult to
remedy. Studies have shown that the leachate from solid wastes may have a
pollution load up to 15 to 20 times higher than domestic wastewater (ESCAP,
2000).
Disposal to landfill of untreated wastes other than inert material is becoming
less acceptable, partly in response to a few well-documented instances where
poorly-designed and operated landfills are giving rise to pollution problems, and
Partly as a result of greater public awareness of the issues involved.
In developing countries, open and uncontrolled dumps predominate and
hazardous wastes are indiscriminately mixed with other materials. Dumps are
Poorly engineered and managed and often give rise to pollution problems.

3.0 INCINERATION
The main goal of incineration is volume reduction, with the sterilization of the
waste as a significant additional gain. The incineration process may also be used
to produce steam and electricity. In most developing countries, households
produce high-density waste. Hence, volume reduction through incineration will be
considerably lower than for wastes incinerated in developed countries. Moreover,
as moisture contents will be high and calorific value low, a self-sustaining
combustion process is not possible.
The cost-effectiveness of incinerating municipal waste increases when energy
recovery is possible; a steady supply of waste with a high combustible content
and nearby market for the energy recovered is essential. Recovery of paper, etc.
from municipal waste in developed countries may reduce its suitability for
incineration. Atmospheric emissions and subsequent deposition to land of some
chemical compounds (like dioxins) following incineration of certain waste
materials have given rise to concerns, Incineration of municipal wastes will not be
a viable disposal option in the near future in developing countries because of its
high cost and the high moisture content of the municipal waste stream.
It is a process of obtaining refuse derived fuel (RDF). The municipal solid waste
is separated for combustibles, which are dried and shredded. It is then blended
with suitable biomass like agricultural waste or sawdust. The blended waste is
then pelletized using suitable binding agent. Drying is done by hot air generated
by biomass incinerator (Panjwani, 1992).
5.0 ANAEROBIC DIGESTION
Anaerobic digestion involves bacterial fermentation of organic wastes in the
absence of free oxygen. The fermentation, when carried out for producing

energy, leads to the breakdown of complex biodegradable organics in four
stages (Figure 1). If this process is properly controlled so that it proceeds as per
these stages, the principal end product is commonly known as 'biogas'
containing about 65% of methane gas, 35% of carbondioxide and traces of
ammonia, hydrogen suiphide and hydrogen. 'Biogas' is a convenient and clean
fuel and can either be used directly with or without the removal of carbondioxide
or can be converted into electricity with the help of suitable generators.
Three physiological groups of bacteria are involved in the anaerobic conversion
of organic materials. The first group of hydrolyzing and fermenting bacteria
converts complex organic materials such as carbohydrates, proteins and lipids to
fatty acids, alcohols, carbondioxide, ammonia and hydrogen. The second group
of HZ - producing acetogenic bacteria convert the product of the first group into
hydrogen, carbondioxide and acetic acid. The third group in turn consists of two
physiologically different groups of methane forming bacteria, one containing
hydrogen and carbondioxide to methane, and the other forming methane from
decarboxylation of acetate (Abbasi and Ramasamy, 1999).
As the present study deals with the other two methods of treatment -
composting and vermicomposting, the processes are discussed in detail in the
following chapter.

References
Abbasi,S.A., and Ramasamy,E.V., 1999. Anaerobic digestion of high solid
waste. In: Proceedings of Eighth National Symposium on Environment.
IGCAR, Kalpakkam, India, 20-22 July, 220-224.
ESCAP, 2000. Solid waste In: Environment statistics course, Chapter 5 draft,
September, Bangkok:UN, 39 pages.
Panjwani,P.U., 1992. Problems and solution related to solid waste
management in metropolis with special reference to Mumbai. In: Proceedings
of seminar on solid waste management, F1 - F27, The Institution of engineers
(India) Maharashtra state Centre, Bombay.

Chapter 3
COMPOSTING AND VERMICOMPOSTING
Unlike industrial waste, which is produced from clearly identifiable point
sources, and is regulated by governmental agencies, solid waste is generated
by everyone. Further, due to increasing population pressure on the land, and
ever increasing loads of waste generated every minute of the day, it has
become well-neigh impossible for the governmental agencies to cope with the
problem. The only way in which solid waste can be managed is to find ways
and means of utilizing such waste at household level and by very simple
technology.
Composting and vermicomposting are identified as the two potentially useful
options for the bioconversion of MSW, weeds, and agrowaste due to the
following reasons:
a) The processes are easy to control and require no greater skill than is
needed to cook a normal Indian meal. These processes are, thus, appropriate
for use at household level where even housewives not trained in science
(some not even fully literate) can also operate reactors based on composting
and vermicomposting.
b) The processes require no more sophisticated equipment than discarded
fruit-packing boxes, shovels, and plastic sheets. This, again, makes these
Processes ideal for use at household level and makes it possible to enthuse
even very low-income families to take them up.
c) The raw materials (biodegradable wastes) are generated at the place of
use; the end products - vermicastings - have an eager market (Abbasi et €11,
2000).

Cornposting is the process of converting organic residues of plant and animal
origin into manure, rich in humus and plant nutrients. It is largely a
microbiological process based upon the activities of several bacteria,
actinomycetes, and fungi (Bharadwaj, 1995). The by-products are carbon
-
dioxide, water and heat.
microbial
stabilized organic
fresh organic +
+ C02 + H20+ heat
02 waste
residue
metabolism
All kinds of organic residues amenable to the enzymatic activities of the
microorganisms can be converted into compost by providing optimum
conditions for biodegradation. Unless strictly controlled, composting employs
the activities of both aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms.
In nature composting takes place when leaves pile up on the floor and begin
to decay. Eventually the decayed leaves are returned to the soil, where living
roots reclaim the nutrients from the remains of the leaves. Ancient people
dumped food wastes in piles near their camps, and found that the wastes
rotted and formed habitat for the seeds of many food plants that sprouted
there. Perhaps people began to recognize that dump heaps were good
places for food crops to grow, and began to put seeds there intentionally.
Hence recycling of organic residues through composting is an ancient
practice. In modern times the use of composting to turn organic wastes into a
valuable resource is expanding in most of the countries, as landfill space
becomes scarce and expensive. Municipal solid waste composting has been
increasingly recognized as a promising alternative for solid waste
management (He et el., 1995).

1.1 Factors that control the composting process
To practice composting, one must have an understanding of the conditions
necessary for successful composting. A compost heap is a miniature
ecosystem where interactions between biological and abiological factors bring
about the desired changes. Thus by providing favorable environment for the
growth and activities of the microorganisms in the system, good quality
compost can be produced.
The abiotic and biotic factors playing key role in the composting process are
given below.
1.1.1 Abiotic factors
i) Nature of the substrate
The maturity of the compost depends upon the initial materials used for
composting (Zucconi and Bertoldi, 1987). Use of compost - agronomic or
horticultural - is based on the compost's chemical composition (Barker, 1997).
If the substrate is of plant origin, then the main constituents are the
carbonaceous compounds such as cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin.
Nitrogenous constituents (proteins) occur to a lesser extent. Protein
constituents, cellulose, and hemicellulose decompose easily. Cellulosic
substrate forms a good raw material for composting. Lignin, being a complex
aromatic polymer, is resistant to microbial attack to a considerable extent.
However, it is not entirely recalcitrant to microbial decomposition; it undergoes
slow degradation. It is assumed that humus is formed mainly from lignin.
Thus, lignin is not totally mineralized during composting. The elevated
temperature found during the thermophilic phase are essential for rapid
degradation of lignocellulose (Tuomela et a/., 2000). A number of fungi,
particularly those belonging to the Basidiomycetes group, are well known for
their lignin decomposing property (Muthukumar and Mahadevan, 1983).
Some bacteria and actinomycetes also possess lignolytic characteristics
(Bharadwaj, 1995).

The porosity of the substrate also plays a role in the composting process.
Porosity of the material assembled for composting permits gas exchange, and
therefore aerobic metabolism becomes dominant, liberating heat profusely.
ii) Carbon /nitrogen ratio
Composting is a treatment process that recommends the addition of
carbonaceous materials to achieve a C/N ratio of 30:l to stimulate
degradation and immobilize nitrogen (Sikora, 1999). Carbon and nitrogen are
the two most important elements in the composting process, as one or the
other is normally a limiting factor. Carbon serves primarily as an energy
source for the microorganisms, while a small fraction of the carbon is
incorporated to their cells. Nitrogen is critical for microbial population growth,
as it is a constituent of protein which forms over 50 percent of dry bacterial
cell mass. If nitrogen is limiting, microbial populations will remain small and it
will take longer to decompose the available carbon. Excess nitrogen, beyond
the microbial requirements, is often lost from the system as ammonia gas.
Nitrogen is usually the limiting element in MSW, which can be composted with
supplemental nitrogen source.
iii) Moisture
Moisture is essential to the decomposition process, as most of the
decomposition occurs in the thin liquid films on the surfaces of particles.
Moisture management requires a balance between microbial activity and
oxygen supply. A moisture content of 60-70% is generally considered ideal to
start with. At later stages of decomposition, the ideal moisture content may be
50-60%. Excess moisture will fill many of the pores between particles with
water, limiting oxygen transport. This, in turn would create anaerobic
conditions and brings about putrefaction. This is undesirable because
putrefaction produces disagreeable odour and undesirable products. On the
other hand if the cornposting substrate is supplied with insufficient water, the
growth and proliferation of microorganisms as well as the rate of

decomposition of the organic material would be slowed down or even
stopped.
It is important, therefore, to ensure adequate moisture in each layer of the
compost heap.
iv) Oxygen and temperature
The decomposition process enhances the interplay between two of the key
environmental parameters, oxygen and temperature. Both fluctuate in
response to microbial activity, which consumes oxygen and generates heat.
Both are linked by a common mechanism of control: aeration. Aeration
supplies oxygen as it is depleted and carries away excess heat.
Inadequate oxygen may lead to the growth of anaerobic microorganisms,
which can produce odourous compounds.
In the aerobic system, the temperature rises to 50-60°C in just a few days
and goes even up to 70°C in two to three weeks. The high temperature rise in
the compost heap destroys weed seeds, pathogenic microorganisms,
maggots and worms, and prevents fly breeding. This happening and the
generation of antibiotics during composting drastically reduces pathogens in
the final compost. In a study conducted by Serra Wittling et a1 (1996), it was
observed that loamy soil amended with MSW compost suppressed the
Fusariurm wilt of flax, (caused by Fusarium oxysporum sp Lini). Both soil
microflora and compost were involved in the suppressiveness and mainly
acted through nutrient and space competition towards that population of the
pathogen
The optimum pH for most microorganisms is between 6.5 and 7.5. Organic
acids are produced during decomposition of the organic matter, but their
existence is only transitory. Problems may arise if the material obtained
undergoes putrefaction, as appreciable amounts of troublesome organic acids
21

are produced during anaerobic decomposition and may produce malodour.
However, a rise in pH beyond 7.5 may make the environment alkaline, which
may cause loss of nitrogen as ammonia.
1.1.2 Biotic factors
Compostable organic materials when acted upon by heterotrophic
microorganisms undergo decomposition under appropriate environmental
conditions.
Occurrence of microorganisms
The decomposition of plant residue is hastened by fungi and bacteria. Being
efficient consumers of carbon fungi build up much higher biomass than other
microorganisms. The most commonly observed species of cellulolytic fungi in
composting materials are Aspergillus, Penicillium, Rhizopus, Fusarium,
Chaetomonium, Trichoderma, Altemaria, and Cladiosporium. Some of the
species of Paecilomyces and Sporotrichum have also been named as efficient
degraders of lignocellulosic wastes (Kapoor et a/, 1978; Mandhulika et a/,
1993). Among bacteria that occur commonly in aerobically decomposing
substrate are species of Bacillus, Cellulomonas, and Azomonas. Clostridium
also occurs in compost heaps or pits. Clostridia occur substantially in
anaerobic conditions. The actinomycetes that occur most frequently are
Micromonospora, Strepfomyces, Nocardia, Thennoactinomyces, etc.
Actinomycetes generally show their activity at later stages of decomposition.
The plant constituent, which offers maximum resistance to biodegradation, is
lignin. Yet, inspite of its substantial microbial recalcitrance, lignin does get
degraded by some fungi and a few bacteria. The most important among these
are white-rot fungi belonging to Basidiomycetes. Species of Polyporus,
Pleurotus, Collybia, Po&, Fomes, Tramefes, Sporotrichum, Cyathus, and
Coriolus have also been found to degrade lignin (Muthukumar and
Mahadevan, 1983).

2.1 Earthworms
2.0 EARTHWORMS AND VERMICOMPOSTING
Earthworms are invertebrates belonging to the phylum Annelida and class
Oligochaeta. Earthworms are so called because they are almost always
terrestrial and burrow into moist-rich soil, emerging at night to forage. The
earthworms are long, thread-like, elongated, cylindrical, soft bodied animals
with uniform ring like structures all along the length of their body. These
bodies consist of segments, arranged in linear series, and outwardly
highlighted by circular grooves called annuli. The body segmentation is
merely an external feature but exists internally too. At the sides of the body
on the ventral surface of each segment are four pairs of short, stubby bristles,
or setae. The setae provide traction for movement. The setae also enable the
worms to cling to their burrows when predators try to pull them out. There is
no well-marked head but a preoral called the prostomium is present.
Earthworms have an opening at each of its ends, the openlng at the anterior
end is the mouth and the one at the posterior is the anus. The body is always
kept moist by the secretion of the body wall and also by the body fluids that
come out at regular intervals from very minute pores in the worms' body
surface. The earthworms do not have any specific organ of sight, hearing or
olfaction, but special cells exist all along the length of their bodies to take up
these sensory functions.
Earthworms possess both male and female gonads. They deposit eggs in a
cocoon without the free larval stage. At maturity, a cover-like tissue is
developed just behind the anterior segments, called the clitellum.
In damp weather the earthworms stay near the surface, often with mouth or
anus protruding from the burrow, while during dry weather, they burrow to
several feet underground, coil up and becomes dormant (Abbasi and
Ramasamy, 2001).

2.1.1 Geographical distribution of earthworms
Earthworms are found in most part of the world with the exception of deserts
(where they are rare), areas under constant snow and ice, mountain ranges,
areas bereft of soil and vegetation. Such features are natural barriers against
the spread or migration of earthworm species, and so are the seas, because
most species of earthworms cannot tolerate salt water even for short period
or the areas influenced by salt water intrusion (Abbasi and Ramasamy, 2001).
Some species of earthworms are widely distributed. Michaelsen (1910) has
used the term peregrine to describe such species. Such of the species which
occur only in specific areas and are not able to spread widely have been
termed endemic.
2.1.2 Ecological classification of earthworms
Ecological classification of earthworms based on interspecific variations has
been attempted by several workers.
a) Classification based on the habitat
Evans and Guild (1947) have distinguished earthworms into surface dwelling
and deep dwelling species. Graff (1953) inferred that a deep pigmented
surface living variety generally occurs predominantly in habitats with sufficient
organic matter. Byzova (1965) was the first to distinguish surface living
smaller worms with high metabolic rate from deep dwelling larger worms with
less metabolic rate. Bouche (1977) proposed an ecological classification of
earthworms into 3 generalised life forms: (i) epigeics, (ii) anecics and (iii)
endogeics. Table 1 gives the summary of the characteristics used by Bouche
(1977) to distinguish ecological types of earthworms. The epigeics have
greater potentiality for degrading organic wastes and endogeics have better
capacity of protein conservation whereas anecics remain in between.

Table 1 Summary of characteristics used by Bouche (1977) to distinguish
Character
Body
Burrowing
Longitudinal
contraction
Hooked chetae
Sensitivity to light
Mobility
Skin moistening
Pigmentation
Fecundity
Maturation
Respiration
Survival of
adverse
ecological type of earthworms
Epigeics
small
reduced
nil
absent
feeble
rapid
developed
homochromic
high
rapid
high
as cocoons
Ecological type
Anecics
moderate
strongly
developed
developed
present
moderate
moderate
developed
dorsal and
anterior
moderate
moderate
moderate
true diapause
Endogeics
large
developed
least developed
absent
strong
feeble
feeble
absent
limited
slow
feeble
by quiescence

Epigeics
Epigeics are species that live above the mineral soil surface (Lee,1985). They
are phytophagous. They generally have no effect on the soil structure as they
cannot dig into the soil ( lsmail 1997). They are small in size with uniform
colouration ( Kumar, 1994).
Anecics
Anecics are species that live in burrows in mineral soil layers, but come to the
surface to feed on dead leaves, which they drag into their burrows. They play
important role in burying surface litter (Lee,1985). They ingest plant matter as
well as soil; in other words they are geophytophagous (Ismail, 1997). They
construct vertical tunnels (Kumar, 1994).
Endogeics
Endogeics are species that inhabit mineral soil horizons feeding on soil more
or less enriched with organic matter (Lee, 1985). They are geophagous
(lsrnai1,1997). They construct horizontal branching burrows (Kumar, 1994).
b) Classification based on the nature of the diet
Perel (Lee, 1985) classified earthworms that feed on plant debris that is only
slightly decomposed as humus formers and those that feed on plant debris
that is already much decomposed as humus feeders.
Another classification is also based on the nature of the diet. Earthworms
that feed on a high proportion of raw humus have been termed detn'vorous
and those that feed on amorphous humus and mineral material geophagous
(Lee 1985).
2.1.3 Factors responsible for earthworm distribution
The factors responsible for earthworm distribution are:
i) physico-chemical (soil, temperature, moisture, pH, inorganic salts,
aeration and texture)
ii) available food (herbage, leaf litter, dung, consolidated organic matter)

iii) reproductive potential and dispersive power of the species (Edwards
i) Soil acidity
and Lofty, 1972).
Earthworms are very sensitive to hydrogen ion concentration. Thus, soil pH
sometimes limits the distribution, number and species of earthworms that live
in a particular soil. Most species of earthworms prefer soils with a pH close to
7.0 (Edwards and Lofty, 1972).
ii) Soil moisture
Earthworms do not thrive in dry soils and avoid drought either by migrating to
lower layers several feet deep or by entering a state of diapause in which they
roll up inside spherical earthen cells lined with mucus.
Earthworms are much more active in moist soils than dry ones and during
periods of heavy rain, individuals of some species such as Lumbricus
terrestris come out on to the soil surface at night. Most species of earthworms
cannot survive flooding, though a fair number can do so, provided water is
aerated. Excess water lowers the pH and this proves fatal to some species of
earthworms.
iii) Temperature
The activity, metabolism, growth, respiration and reproduction of earthworms
are all greatly influenced by temperature. Fertility and the growth period from
hatching to sexual maturity are also dependent on temperature.
iv) Cycles of activity
The cycles of earthworm activities are mainly determined by the temperature
and water regimes in the soil and the availability of food. Usually, temperature
is the most dominant limiting factor in temperate and cold regions; shortage of
food and soil moiQure (such as in summer) may also be important limiting
factors.
, t

2.1.4 Burrowing
Earthworms create tunnels through the soil as they move. They first push their
anterior portion into a crevice and then bore in by expanding their segments
and forcing apart the obstacles. When the soil is very compact, they literally
eat their way through. Burrows range from 3 to 12 mm in diameter, but it is not
certain whether worms increase the size of their burrows as they grow, or
make new ones. During very dry days, earthworms can go several feet
underground. At the bottom of each burrow, a wide space is formed so that
the earthworms may take turns in the burrow. The entrance of the burrow is
often covered with bits of leaves, faecal matters, and some pebbles to stop in
flow of the water and keep off predators. The burrows are cemented internally
by secretion of the worms' cutaneous glands.
2.1.5 Feeding
Earthworms mainly feed upon the decaying organic matter found in the soil.
They also feed on leaf and other plant material obtained on the soil surface.
They do not feed to any great extent on the leaf material in situ, but first pull it
into the mouth of the burrow, to a depth of 2.5-7.5 cm, so forming a plug,
which may protrude from the burrow. The food is first moistened by an
alkaline enzymatic secretion, which digests starch, making it easier to tear it
into shreds. Leaves may be torn by holding them by the edge between the
prostomium and the mouth and pushing the pharynx forward. Alternatively,
small portions may be sucked in by first pressing the mouth against the leaf
and then withdrawing the pharynx, thus creating suction.
2.1.6 Casting
After passing through the animal, the food emerges as a compact,
concentrated mass termed as casting. Some species cast within their burrows
and others on the surface. The form of casting may vary from individual
Pellets (as in Phecetima posthuma) to short threads (as in Perionyx milard$
Eutyphoenus waltoni, an Indian species, produces casts that look like a
twisted coiled tube and the African species Eudrilus eugeniae produces casts

that take the form of pyramids of very finely divided soil (Edwards and Lofty,
1972).
Earthworm casts contain microorganisms, inorganic minerals and organic
matter in a form available to plants. Casts also contain enzymes such as
proteases, amylase, lipase, cellulase and chitinase, which continue to
disintegrate organic matter even after they have been excreted.
2.2 Crlteria for the selection of species suitable for vermicomposting
(i) easy to culture
(ii) high affinity for the substrate to be verrnicomposted
(iii) high rate of vermicast output per worm and per unit digester volume.
2.3 Species advocated for vermicomposting
It is generally known that epigeic species have a greater potential as waste
decomposers than anecics and endogeics. This is due to the predominantly
humus consuming surface dwelling nature of the epigeics. The commonly
used epigeic species are Eudrilus eugeniae Eisenia foetida and Perionyx
excavatus ( Hartenstein et al, 1979; Graff, 1974; Haimi and Huhta, 1986; Kale
et al, 1982, Reinecke and Venter, 1987; Kumar, 1994).
All the above three species are prolific feeders and can feed upon a wide
variety of degradable organic wastes. They exhibit high growth rate. But E.
foetida has a wider tolerance for temperature than E. eugeniae and P.
excavatus which allows the species to be cultivated in area with high
temperature (often as high as 43 OC) as well as area with lower soil
temperature (often below 5 OC ).
Species used in India
Some experts recommend the use of surface dwelling epigeic species for
vermicomposting, while others recommend the burrowing anecics and
endogeics. A status report prepared by CAPART (Kumar, 1994) recommends
ePigeic species such as E.eugeniae, E.foetida, P.excavatus and

P,sansibaricus as good converters of waste. Of these, P.excavatus and P.
sansibaricus are endemic species. According to him, E.foetida is probably the
species best suited for venicomposting throughout the country, whereas
E.eugeniae, P.excavatus and P, sansibaricus are better suited for the
southern parts of the country where the summer temperature does not rise as
high as in central and north India
Bhiday, (Rajendran, 1994) Director of the Institute of Natural Organic
Agriculture (INORA) in Pune, also advocates the use of surface worms
because they consume all types of garbage and multiply quickly.
Among the authors who recommend use of endogeics and anecics that are
native to the local soil are lsmail (1997), Mitra (1997), and Bieri (2002).
According to lsmail (1997), though surface dwellers are capable of working
hard on the litter layer and convert all the organic waste into manure, they are
of no significant value in modifying the structure of the soil. The anecics,
however are capable of both organic waste consumption as well as in
modifying the structure of the soil. He recommends earthworms comprising
the epigeic and anecic varieties, for the combined process of litter and soil
management. According to him, though P.excavatus and L.mauritii together
take care of litter and other organic waste, L.maurifii being an anecic
earthworm also help in rejuvenating the soil by burrowing through it. The local
endogeics recommended in the status report of CAPART (Kumar, 1994) for
maintenance of soil fertility include L.mauritii , Pontoscolex corethrurus,
Pheretima posthuma, Octochaetona serrate and many others.
2.4 Conventional steps involved in vermicomposting
vermicomposting can be done either in pits or concrete tanks or well rings or
in wooden or plastic crates appropriate to a given situation (lsmai1,1997). If
done in pits, it is preferable to select a composting site under shade, in the
upland or an elevated level, to prevent water stagnation in pits during rains.
Any set-up for producing vermicompost should have the following attributes :

a) It should have adequate provision for earthworms to live, feed, and
breed; such provision should confirm to the habits of the earthworm
species used in the set-up.
b) It should be kept optimally moist and close to neutral pH.
c) It should safeguard against insects and predators so as to prevent harm
to the earthworms.
d) It should have adequate provision for periodic harvesting of vermicast
and renewal of feed.
According to lsmail (1997) a typical vermicomposting unit may be set up by
first placing a basal layer of vermibed comprising of broken bricks or pebbles
(3-4 cm ) followed by a layer of coarse sand to a total thickness of 6-7 cms to
ensure proper drainage. This may be followed by a 15 cms moist layer of
loamy soil, Into this soil may be inoculated about 100 locally collected
earthworms (about 50 surface and 50 subsurface varieties).Small lumps of
cattledung (fresh or dry) may then be scattered over the soil and covered with
a 10 cm layer of hay. Water may be sprayed till the entire set up is moist but
not wet. Less water kills the worms and too much chases them away. The unit
may be kept covered with broad leaves like those of coconut or palmyrah. Old
jute bags can also be used for covering. Watering the unit should be
continued and the unit monitored for 30 days. The appearance of juvenile
earthworms by this time may be taken as a healthy sign. Organic refuse may
be added from the thirty-first day as a spread on the bed after removing the
fronds The spread should not exceed 5 cms in thickness at each application,
though addition of this amount of matter can be done everyday. According to
lsmail (1997) it is advisable for a beginner to spread the feed only twice a
week, watering to requirement. After a few applications, the refuse may be
turned once without disturbing the bed. The day enough refuse has been
added into the unit, watering may be done and 45 days later the compost
would be ready for harvest.
As the organic refuse changes into a dark brown compost addition of water
should be stopped (42nd day). This would move the worms into the
vermibed. The compost may be harvested and the harvested compost placed

in the form of a cone on ground in bright sunlight. This will facilitate worms
present in the compost to move to the lower layers. The compost pile may be
spread for about 24 to 36 hours, and the worms may be removed from the
lower layers of the compost (Ismail, 1996).
2.5 Factors influencing the culturing of earthworms
Several factors control the culturing and maintenance of healthy earthworm
populations, of which the most important are:
i) Food
ii) Moisture
iii) Temperature
iv) Light
v) pH
vi) Protection from predators
iJ Food
One of the most important factors that control the establishment and continuity
of earthworm populations is food and its quantity. Higher nitrogen ratios help
in faster growth and greater production of cocoons. Fresh green matter is not
easily fed upon. Decomposition by microbial activity is essential before
earthworms can feed on fresh waste. The Carbon-Nitrogen (C: N) ratio is the
critical factor that limits earthworm populations. When the C: N ratio of the
feed material increases, it becomes difficult to extract enough nitrogen for
tissue production. Earthworms find it difficult to survive when the organic
carbon content of the soil is low.
iiJ Moisture
Moisture levels have to be maintained at around 50% so that the microbial
activity is high and the food matter is easy to feed upon. Excess water leads
to anaerobic conditions which in turn lowers the pH and creates acidic
conditions. Acidic conditions reduce productivity and cause migration.

iii) Temperature
Temperature affects metabolism, growth and reproduction. Soils exposed to
the sun loose moisture quickly and are usually devoid of earthworms.
Earthworms maintain lower body temperatures than the surrounding soil or
organic matter by their metabolic adjustments.
iv) Light
Earthworms are very sensitive to light. The photoreceptor cells detect light
and the earthworm moves away to avoid strong light. The deep burrowing
anecics and other species emerge at the surface only at night for this reason.
Earthworms are sensitive to changes in pH. They prefer conditions of neutral
reaction. Earthworms find it difficult to survive if the pH falls below 6 and
either migrate or are killed.
vi) Predators
Earthworms are preyed upon by many species of ants, birds, toads,
salamanders, snakes, moles, cats, rats, dogs etc. Moles catch earthworms,
bite off three to five anterior segments to prevent locomotion and keep them
in their burrows. A variety of invertebrates also feed on earthworms. These
include flatworms, centipedes, staphylinid beetles, etc.
2.6 Benefits of vermicompost
In India - as also many other parts of the world - vermicasts are believed to
have several components, which improve the soil to which they are applied
(Kumar, 1994; Ismail, 1997). The perceived, sometimes demonstrated,
benefits include improvement in the water retention capability of the soil, and
better plant availability of the nutrients in the vermicasts compared to the
'parent' (pre-~ermicom~osted) material (Ismail, 1998). The magnitude of the
transformation of phosphorous forms was found to be considerably higher in

the case of earthworm-inoculated organic wastes, showing that vermicompost
may prove to be an efficient technology for providing better phosphorous
nutrition from different organic wastes (Ghosh et a/, 1999). Vermicompost has
lower CIN ratio and pH than normal compost irrespective of the source of
organic waste. Microbial population is also considerably higher in
vermicompost than compost (Chowdappa et a/, 1999).
Vermicasts are also believed to contain enzymes and hormones that
stimulate plant growth and discourage pathogens (lsmai1.1997; Abbasi and
Ramasamy ,1999; Szczeck,1999). Vermicompost added to various container
media significantly inhibited the infection of tomato plants by Fusarium
oxysporium . f, sp. Lycopercisi. The protective effect increased in proportional
to the rate of application of vermicompost (Szczeck, 1999).
For these reasons vermicasts are popular soil applicants among the farmers,
and find a ready market.

References
Abbasi,S.A., and Ramasamy,E.V., 1999. Anaerobic digestion of high solid
waste. In: Proceedings of Eighth National Symposium on Environment.
IGCAR, Kalpakkam, India, 20-22 July, 220-224.
Abbasi,S.A., and Ramasamy,E.V., 2001. Solid waste management with
earthworms. Discovery Publishing House, New Delhi, 178 pages.
Abbasi,S.A., Ramasamy,E.V., Gajalakshmi,S., Khan,F.I., and Abbasi,N.,
2000. A waste management project involving engineers and scientists of a
university, a voluntary (non-governmental) organization, and lay people - a
case study. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Transdisciplinarity,
Swiss Federal institute of Technology, Zurich, Feb 1-3.
Barker,A.V., 1997. Agricultural uses of by-products and wastes (Series: ACS
Symp. Series), 668, 140-162.
Bieri, M., 2002. Sustainable waste treatment as resource management. Ethio-
Forum Conference. Ethiopian Social Rehabilitation and Development Fund,
Rueschiiikon.
Bhardwaj,K.K.R., 1995. Improvements in microbial compost technology: a
special reference to microbiology of composting. In: Wealth from Waste,
Khanna, S., Mohan, K. (Eds.) Tata Energy Research Institute, New Delhi,
11 5-1 35.
Bouche,M.B., 1977. Strategies lombriciennes. In: Soil organisms as
components of ecosystems (Eds.) Lohm, U and Persson, Biol. Bull.
(Stockholm), 25, 122-132.
Byzova,Yu B.,1965. Comparative rate of respiration in some earthworms.
Rev. Ecol. Biol. Soil, 2, 207-16.

Chowdappa,F., Biddappa,C.C., and SujathaS., 1999. Effective recycling of
organic waste in arecanut ( Amca catechu L.) and cocoa ( Theombrome
cacoa L.) plantation through verrnicornposting. Indian Journal of Agricultural
Science, 69 (8), 563-66.
Edwards,C.A., and Lofty,J.R., 1972. Biology of earfhwons, Chapman and
Hall, London.
Evans,A.C., and Guild,W.J.Mc.L.,1947. Studies on the relationships between
earthworms and soil ferti1ity.i. Biological studies in the field. Ann.app1. Biol, 34
(3)307-330.
Ghosh,M.,Chattopadhyay,G.N.,Baral,K.,1999. Transformation of phosphorous
during vermicomposting. Bioresource Technology, 69(2), 149-154.
Graff,O., 1953. Investigations in soil zoology with special reference to the
terricole Oligochaeta Z. PflErnahr. Dung, 61, 72-77.
Graff,O., 1974. Gewinnung von Biomasse aus Abfallstoffen durch Kultur des
Kompostregenwurms Eisenia foetida (Savigny 1826). Landbauf Forsch
Volken rode 2, 137-142.
Haimi, J., and Huhta, V., 1986. Capacity of various organic residues to
support adequate earthworm biomass for vermicomposting. Biology and
Fertility of soils 2, 23-27.
Hartenstein,R., Neuhauser,E.F., and Kaplan,D.L., 1979. Reproductive
Potential of the earthworm Eisenia foetida. Oecologia (Berl), 43, 329-340.
He,X.T., Logan,T.J., and Traina,S.J., 1995. Physical and chemical
characteristics of selected US municipal solid waste composts. Journal of
Environmental Quality, 24(3), 543-552.

Ismail,S.A., 1996. Vemitech (Vennicompost and Vermiwash), Institute of
Research in Soil Biology and Biotechnology, New College, Chennai.
Ismail,S.A., 1997. Vemicology : The Biology of Earthworms, Orient Longman
92 pages.
Ismail, S.A., 1998. The contribution of soil fauna especially the earthworms to
soil fertility. In: Proceedings of the workshop on organic farming, Institute of
Research in soil Biology and Biotechnology, The New College, Chennai, pp 9.
Kale, R.D., Bano,K., and Krishnomoorthy, R.V., 1982. Potential of Perionyx
excavatus for utilizing organic wastes. Pedobiologia, 23, 419-425.
Kapoor,K.K., Jain,M.M., Mishra,M.M., Singh,C.P., 1978. Cellulase activity,
degradation of cellulose and lignin and humus formation by cellulolytic fungi.
Annulus of Microbiology, 129 5, 61 3-620.
Kumar.C.A., 1994. State of the Art Report on vermiculture in India. Council
for Advancement of People's action and Rural Technology (CAPART), New
Delhi, 60 pages.
Lee,K.E., 1985. Earthwonns: The ecology and relationships with soils and
land use, Academic Press, New York, 420 pages.
Mandhulika, Singh,D.P., Malik,K.K., 1993, Isolation of a few lignocellulose
degrading fungi. Indian Journal of Microbiology, 33, 265-267.
Michaelsen,W., 1910. Die Oligochatenfauna der vorderindischceylonischen
Region. Abh. Natural Hamburg, 19.
Mitra, A,, 1997. Vemiculture end vemicomposting of non-toxic solid waste
epplications in aquaculture. In: Bioethics in India: Proceedings of the
International Bioethics workshop in Madras: Biomanagement of

iogeoresources, Azan'ah,J., Azariah,H., darryl, Macer, R.J.(Eds.), University
of Madras, Jan 16-19.
Muthukumar,G., and Mahadevan,A., 1983. Microbial degradation of lignin.
Journal of Science and Industrial Research, 42, 51 8-528.
Rajendran,S., 1994. Exploiting earthworms for fertilizers. Down to Earth,
2(21), 22-23.
Reinecke, A.J., and Venter, J.M., 1987. Moisture preferences, growth and
reproduction of the compost worm Eisenia foetida (Oligochaeta), Biology and
Fertility of soils, 135-1 41.
SerraWittling,C., Houot,S., Alabouvette,C., 1996. Increased soil
suppressiveness to Fusarium wilt of flax after addition of municipal solid waste
compost. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 28 (9), 1207-1214.
Sikora,L.J.,1999. Municipal solid waste compost reduces nitrogen
volatilization during dairy manure composting. Compost Science and
Utilization, 7(4), 34-41 .
Szczeck,M.M., 1999. Suppressiveness of vermicompost against Fusarium wilt
of tomato. Journal of Phytopathology - Phytopathologische Zeitschrift, 147
(3), 155-161.
Tuomela,M., Vikman,M., Hatakka,A., Itavaara,M., 2000. Biodegradation of
lignin in a compost environment: a review. Bioresource Technology, 72(2),
169-183.
Zucconi,F., and Bertoldi,M..,l987. Compost specifications for the production
and characterization of compost from municipal solid wastes. In: Compost :
Production, Quality and Use. Ed. M de Bertoldi., M.P. Ferranti., P.L. Hermite
and F. Zucconi (Eds.). Elsevier Applied Science, London, 30-50.

The Present Work
Of the several options for the treatment and I or disposal municipal solid
wastes, cornposting and vermicomposting are perhaps the most 'low
technology' ones in the sense that they can be handled by farmers and
household people with very little training. The focus of the present work is to
develop such know-how with which different types of solid waste can be
efficiently vermicomposted employing very inexpensive appliances.
The present work comprises of the following studies:
A: Reactor design
i) Screening of the earthworm species suitable for different types of solid
wastes
ii) Effect of cowdung supplement on vermiconversion
iii) Effect of feed particle size and 'toughness' on vermiconversion
iv) Effect of earthworm density on the reactor efficiency
v) Composting of different wastes to enhance their acceptability as worm
feed
vi) Effect of reactor composition on feed utilization rate
vii) Performance of 'second generation' worms compared to the pioneers
B: Utilizability of composffvermicompost
i)
Viability of disposing vermicasts from weed-fed reactors into water
bodies
ii) Impact of compost I vermicompost on the growth and flowering of plant
species
C: Extension of know-how at villagelsuburban levels
i) Composting-vermicomposting of different types of weeds and
agrowastes at Abhishegapakkam village
ii) Collection and treatment of MSW at the Pondicherry University campus

Organization of the thesis
The content of the thesis is divided into six parts. The f~rst part, comprising of
three chapters, gives introduction to municipal solid waste (MSW), weeds, and
agrowaste; the various treatment I disposal methods, elaborating composting
and vermicomposting.
Part two deals with the various aspects of the study conducted in
verrnicomposting water hyacinth. This part has four chapters
In the third part, vermicomposting of paper waste has been discussed. This
part has 5 chapters. Each chapter focuses on a particular study made in
vermicomposting paper waste effectively.
The fourth part deals with composting and vermicomposting of leaf litter.
Part five comprising of two chapters deals with the effect of compost 1
vermicompost on plant growth.
The sixth part, has two chapters. The first chapter details the attempts made
to extend the developed know-how of composting 1 vermicomposting at
villagelsub-urban level. The trial made to collect and treat the MSW generated
at Pondicherry University campus has been included as the second chapter in
this part.

Part II
Vermicomposting
of water hyacinth

Part 11
VERMICOMPOSTING OF WATER HYACINTH
Water hyacinth has successfully resisted all attempts of eradicating it by
chemical, biological, mechanical, or hybrid means (Abbasi and Ramasamy,
1999). A large number of reports are available on the possible ways of
utilizing water hyacinth. These include use as paper pulp, poultry/veterinary
feed, material for furniture and carry bags, source of medicinals etc etc. But
the only utilization option that has proved economically viable is deployment of
the weed in purifying wastewaters (Tchobanoglous et a1.,1989,
Tchobanoglous and Burton, 1999). But the quantity of weed that can be thus
utilized is very very small; indeed beyond the 'seed ' plants needed to start the
wastewater purification systems, one does not need water hyacinth growing in
nature for this purpose. Furthermore, the water hyacinth that grows in
wastewater treatment systems has to be periodically harvested and disposed,
just as the weed growing in the nature has to (Gajalakshmi eta/., 2002).
Attempts to find other economically viable means of utilizing water hyacinth
have been made. These include the extraction of volatile fatty acids (VFAs)
from water hyacinth for use as feed-supplement in biogas digesters
(Ramasamy and Abbasi, 1999; 2000), solid-feed anaerobic digestion of the
weed to generate fuel as methane (Ramasamy, 1997; Abbasi and
Ramasamy, 1999). Even as these options are gainful, the problem of
disposal of 'spent' weed ensuing from VFA extractors, anaerobic digestion, or
wastewater treatment systems still remains.
We have studied verrnicomposting of water hyacinth - directly or after
composting - due to the following likely benefits:
Water hyacinth, even in its decayed or dried form, has the ability to
vegetatively propagate itself. But studies conducted by us ( Gajalakshmi et
a1,2002 ) have revealed that the weed loses this ability once it passes through
4 1

the earthworm's gut. Vermicast is very popular as soil conditioner among the
farmers, especially in the third world.
Vermicomposting thus appeared to be a highly promising option for not only
large-scale utilization of water hyacinth, but also its ultimate disposal. In the
following chapters studies on various aspects of utilization of water hyacinth
by composting-vermicomposting is presented.
At the start, four of the earthworm species - two anecics and two epigeics
were screened for their potential as vermiconverters of water hyacinth. The
study has since been published in Bioresource Technology, 76, 177-
181(2001) and is reproduced as chapter 4.
As the vermicast output may depend on the size and texture of the feed,
water hyacinth in various forms - fresh, chopped, dried, precomposted, and
withiwithout cowdung supplement - was tried as substrate for
vermicomposting. The study has been published in Bioresource Technology,
82, 165-169 (2002) and is reproduced as chapter 5.
Chapter 6 focuses on the viability of reactors fed with different proportions of
water hyacinth and cowdung. Attempts were also made to improve the
efficiency of the vermireactors in terms of vermicast output per unit time and
per unit reactor volume. The study has been published in Bioresource
Technology, 80,131-135 (2001) and is reproduced as chapter 6.
In an attempt to develop a system with which water hyacinth can be
economically processed to generate vermicompost in large quantities, the
feed was first composted and then subjected to vermicomposting in reactors
with large earthworm densities. The study has been published in Bioresource
Technology, 83, 235-239 (2002) and is reproduced as chapter 7.

Studies to see whether water hyacinth vermicompost can
trigger infestation of the weed
One of the reasons behind the exceptional intransigence and colonizing ability
of water hyacinth is that the weed can propagate sexually as well as
vegetatively. Even a tiny piece of a water hyacinth petiole can grow into a
plant and become the source of propagation of water hyacinth in water bodies
hitherto free from the weed.
When we set out to use water hyacinth as a possible substrate for
generating vermicompost it was felt expedient to check whether water
hyacinth vermicompost contains any remnant of the weed in a form that can
lead to vegetative reproduction of the weed if the remnant had to accidentally
reach an otherwise hyacinth-free water body.
Therefore the following experiments were conducted:
Two sets of circular plastic containers were filled with garden soil upto half of
their volume. Of these in one set, water was filled upto the brim and in the
other set, the soil was moistened, maintaining approximately 60-70% moisture
content. A third set of containers was filled with only water. In all the
containers, a known quantity of castings obtained from water hyacinth fed
reactor was applied and the containers were kept under continuous
monitoring.
The experiment was continued for six months retaining the same conditions.
There was no sign of germination of water hyacinth in any of the containers.
Hence it may be concluded that water hyacinth loses its ability to reproduce
after it has passed through the earthworm gut.

References
Abbasi,S.A., and Ramasamy,E.V., 1999. Biotechnological methods of
pollution control. Orient Longman (Universities press), Hyderabad , pp 168.
Gajalakshmi,S., Ramasamy,E,V., Abbasi,S.A., 2002. Vermicomposting of
different forms of water hyacinth by the earthworm Eudrilus eugeniae,
Kinberg. Bioresource Technology, 82, 165-169.
Ramasamy,E.V., 1997. Biowaste treatment with anaerobic reactors, Ph D
thesis submitted to Pondicherry University, Pondicherry, India, pp
Ramasamy,E.V., and Abbasi,S.A., 1999. High-solids anaerobic digestion for
the recovery of energy and manure from municipal solid waste (MSW), In:
Proc. Fourth World Congress on Recovery, Recycling and Reintegration,
Geneva, VI, 1-6.
Ramasamy,E.V., and Abbasi,S.A.,2000. Enhancement in the treatment
efficiency and conversion to energy of dairy wastewater by augmenting CST
reactors with simple biofilm support systems. Environmental Technology, 22,
561-565.
Tchobanoglous,G., Maitski,F.k., Thomson,K., Chadwick,T.H., 1989. Evolution
and performance of city of San Diego pilot scale aquatic wastewater treatment
system using water hyacinth. J. WPCF 61 (1 1/12).
Tchobanoglous,G and Burton,F.L., 1999. Wastewater engineering treatment,
disposal, and reuse. Tata Mc. GrawHill Publishing Company, New Delhi, pp
1334.

d ELSEVIER
Chapter 4
Biorcrouroc Tcchnalogy 76 (2Wll 117-I81
Potential of two epigeic and two anecic earthworm species in
vermicomposting of water hyacinth
S. Gajalakshmi, E.V. Ramasamy, S.A. Abbasi
Ctnrrrfor Poilullon Conlroland Ewrgy Tednoiog)~. Pondcrhsr) Univr$iiv Kolapet. Pondicl~tny 643 014. Indm
Rse~vcd 7 July 2033. nwved ~n revid iorm 20 August 2033. accepted 29 August 2033
The polcntrdl of Iwo eptgetc specles (Eudrrlur rugenur Kinberg, and Perton)r ~xcumluj Pemer) and tuo aneclc species (la,npt~o
rnourtrii Ktnkrg and Drusida ivrlls~ Mlchaelson) of earthworms was assessed In tcms of efficiency and sustalnab~hty of vermlcomposting
water hyactnth (E~chhornlu crnssiper, Man Solm.). In different vermireactors, each run in duplicate w~th one ofthe four
species of earthworms, and 75 g of 6:1 water hyacinth, cowdung asked, vcmucasts were produced with steadily lncrcasing output In
all the reactors. E eupenlu? was by far thc most efficient produccr of vermicasts, followed by the other epigcic P. excowru. The two
ancnfa came ncxt, wlth D ~~,dltibe~ng the least effective which could gcneralc only aboul half the quantity of vcrm~casts achteved In
a wmsponding tlmc by E Pugentoe. In a11 the rcacton, the canhwonrs grcw well, increasing thelr wights by more than 250%. The
maxtmum net garn of we~ghl (averagc 30 7 g) was by E eugrnior. lollowed by P e.vcuwrui. L rilaurrrtd and D millrt Thts Irend.
whtch followed the effic~ency ofvcnn~casl productron. was also shown In terms of reproduct~ve ablllty as measured by the number of
offspring produced by the four spectcs 0 2000 Elxv~er Sclence Ltd. All rlghts reserved.
Water hyaclnth (Eichhornin crassipes Mart. Solm.) is
one ofthe most intrans~gcnt weeds ofthe world (Abbast.
1998). It has successfully resisted all attempts of eradicating
it by chemical, btological, mechanical, or hybrid
The authors have ken trytng to find ways and means
of utilizing water hyacinth by low.cost and labour-in.
tensive technology so that farmen and householden
living near the wetlands are encouraged to harves~ the
means (Abbas~ and Ramasamy, 1999a). At present these
weed, thus kcep~ng II under control when other means of
controll~ng 11 are not available. These attempts have led
to the extraction of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from
methods succeed only tn keeping the weed cnfestation In water hyacinth lo be used as feed-supplement in slurry
check at enormous costs. Wherever water hyacinth is biogas digesters (Abbasi and Ramasamy, 1996; Ra.
not controlled, due to limited resources or other reasons. masamy and Abbasi, 2W), and solid-feed digesters to
it rapidly covers all the water-bodies and surrounding generate fuel (Ramasamy. 1997; Abbasi and Ramasmarshy
areas in those regions. At an average annual amy, 1999b). Another economically viable means of
productivity of 50 dry (ash-free) tonnes per hectare per utilizing water hyacinth, from among numerous options
year, water hyacinth is one of the most productive -
perhaps the most productive - plants In the world
(Lakshman, 1987; Abbasi and Ntpaney, 1993), has been
the use of the weed in treating wastewaters with biode.
(Abbasi and Nipaney, 1986; Abbas~ and Ramasamy, gradable pollutants (Tchobanoglous et a]., 1989;
1999a). This attribute helps the weed to cover water Tchobanoglous and Burton, 1999). Even if these options
surfacts faster than most other plants. Such colon~zation arc gainful, the problem of disposal of 'spent' weed still
of wetlands leads to rapid decline of the quantity and the
quality of water contained in the wetlands - eventually
remains.
In this paper, we presenl studies on the efficacy and
causing the loss of the wetlands.
- 'Comspondlng author Tel. t91.413-655363, far +9141.1.6552271
hS526S.
&moil&at. prof-~bbra!@wquml corn (S.A. Abhsli.
sustainability of using four speeies of cpige~c @hyto.
phagous) and anecic (geophytophagous) earthworms in
generating vermicasts from water hyacinth. In India - as
also many othn parts of the world - vermicasls are
believed to have several components which improve the
~851UOln. K lront matlor O 2033 Elxvkr Sc~cncr Lld All nghts mrwd
PI1 S0960.8J!4(00100113.4
45

soil to which they are applied (Ashok Kumar, 1994;
Ismail, 1997). The perceived, sometimes demonstrated,
benefits include improvement in the water retention
capability of the soil, and better plant availability of the
nutrients in the vmnicasts compand to the 'parent'
(pre.vermiwmposred) material (Ismail, 1998). Vermi-
casts are also believed to contain eluymcs and hormones
that stimulate plant growth and discourage pathogens
(Ismail, 1997; Abbasi and Ramasamy, 1999a; Slwcck,
1999). For these reasons vermicasts are popular soil
applicants among the farmers, and find a ready market.
In earlier studies (Abbasi and Ramasamy, 1996;
Abbasi et al., 2W), we had found that water hyacinth
loses its ability to reproduce vegetatively or sexually
after it has passed through the earthworm gut. Other
wise even tiny piem of the wad petioles, if introduced
in a water-logged area, can lead to reproduction and
vlgorous colonization. These observations have en-
couraged us to explore possibilities of vermicomposting
water hyacinth as a means of final disposal of the weed
2.1. Choice of the earthworm species
The epigeic Eudrilus eugenlae Kinberg is a manure
worm which has been extensively used in north America
and Europe for vermicomposting because of its vora.
cious appetite, high rate of growth, and reproductive
ability. A few years back it was brought to India and has
been favoured with progressively increasing application
in the vermiwmposting of animal manure and other
forms of b~omass (Ashok Kumar, 1994: Ismail, 1998).
Table I
Gencrauon olvcrmwtr (%of M mu) pm IS days by thc lour canhworm spies, wth chop@ fresh water hyrinfb:urwdung ac fed
Runs E wnior P ~IPWIYI L rnovri~tt D wth,
lmch dap) Rpnar Racior Amage Resctor Rmor Avcrogc Rcaclor Ranor Avenge Rcanor Rcactor Avmge
I II I I1 I II I I1
354 414 38.4 29.6 32.0 308 23.5 25.9 247 153 11.9 166
42.6 460 443 32.8 M.6 34.7 278 3.4 29.6 18.6 234 21.0
3 408 43.8 42.3 33 7 37.5 15 6 28 6 320 333 9 244 220
4 41 5 445 430 334 384 35.9 30 l 325 31.3 22.6 274 25.0
5 432 476 454 Y 6 374 36.0 31.8 37.2 Y.5 M.5 23.3 21.9
6 435 465 450 35.6 37.8 36.7 29.6 32.8 31.2 M.3 23.1 217
439 497 478 361 391 18.0 31.4 Y.6 33.0 21.8 234 226
8 45 1 47 9 46.5 38 2 42 4 40.3 33.8 19 6 36.7 22.9 26 3 246
9 468 516 492 37.5 421 39.8 35.3 39.1 37.2 221 247 23.5
10 501 Sdl 52.4 40.9 441 42.5 385 43.1 40.8 239 317 278
I I 503 13.3 518 42.6 4K2 454 404 4.2 42.3 25.2 31.8 285
I! 516 556 536 43.3 451 447 40.6 45.8 43.2 28.6 32.2 30.4
Avenge 44 7 48.6 46.6 36 5 40.2 38 4 32 6 36 5 34.6 21 8 25 8 23.8
Table 2
Norm blow. 8, la mnow won (cf Tabk I), a I fvncllon of ume
Runs E ngmme P exmurrw L mwro D willrl
(cachor15dr~) Rslctor Rpnor Aveng Rslclor Rpnor Avenge Reactor Runor Avenge Reactor Reactor Avrngr
Net i- 30.7 25.8 23.3 22.8

S Gajalakdnrt rr ul 1 Qorrsovra T~lmology 76 (2WII 177-181
Table 3
Numbcr of new ofspring recorded csch iortnlght in vanoul wwn lciTablc I)
- -
Runs E eugcnlar P excowlus L mvr1rN D wiliS8
(each Or l5
Reactor Rcaetor Averas Reactor Reactor Anrage Reactor Reactor Average Ructor Rwor Anmg
I I1 I 11 I I1 I I1
1-3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
The other epige~c species of worm studied by us -
Perionyx excawtus Perrier - is indigenous and occurs in
most parts of India (Gaur and Singh, 1995; Ismail,
1997). It is also common in several other regions across
the world (Manna et al.. 1997).
Both the anecic (geophytophagous) species of worms
uttl~zed in this study occur in India, as also elsewhere,
but Dmwida sillsi M~chaelson is partrularly common in
the southern part of the Indian peninsula
Circular. 4 1 plastic containers (d~a. 24 an, depth 9
cml were filled from bottom up with succcsslve layers of
sawdust, river sand and so11 of depths I. 2, and 4 cm,
rcspecuvely. In each reactor, 20 healthy and adult animals
of the chosen species were introduad. These ani.
mals were picked from the cultures maintained by he
authors with cowdung as the feed. Each culture had
more than 200 animals from which 20 individuals %re
randomly psked for these experiments. The average
moisture conlent of the vermircactors was maintained at
45 * 1% by monitoring the moisture content at differtnt
he~ghts of the reactors every wtxk and sprinkling the
required quanuties of water. Usually the top one-third
of the reactors had 29f I% moisture, the middk onelhlrd
45 i I%. and the bottom one-th~rd 61 f I%. All
quantities were adjusted m that the feed and the casting
mass reported to this ppu represent dry weights (taken
after ovendrying at 105'C lo constant Wt). The
earthworm biom is reported as live wight, taken
after rinsing adh* nutorid OR the worms md blot-
'In8 them dry. The castings were cartfully sieved to
Separate other partickr. A portion or the castings was
'hen weighed and thoroughly washed with water to
Separate the rimrll mil panicla contained in the castings
from the organic matter. The separated soil was oven
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9101112
Fortnights I]
Fig. I ROCOW or nnlcuu WO)
uch ionnlghl by (a1 E Wnm
(b) P extaoolw (cl L wririi (d) D wllin

drled (IOYC) to constant welght. This enabled determi.
~iation of the mass fraction of so11 particles contained in
!he castings. This fraction was subtracted from the total
mass of castings recovered. Thus. the vermiconversion
data presented here pertain to conversion of only the feed
10 the castings, and exclude the entrained soil.
The reactors, all run in dupl~cate, were started with
75 g of feed comprising of water hyacinth:cowdung at
6.1 (wlw, dry weight). After I5 days, the castings and the
earthworms were removed and placed in separate conlillners
for quant~fication while the rest of the reactor
contents were discarded. Within a few minutes fresh
reactors were started. The juveniles, if any were gener.
;)led in the prevlous run, were separated and the 20
worms, with which the reactors had been started, were
~'e~ghcd and reintroduced It was very easy to distin.
~uish 'parent' worms as they were much larger in size
than the juveniles produced during the run. All subsequent
measurements were taken once in 15 days m the
lnanner described above, resett~ng the vermlreactors
esch time so that the same sets of worms w~th which the
rerctors were svarled continued to be the principal
producers of vermicasts
3. Rwlts and discussion
The average vermlcast recovery as the fractlon of feed
niass (Table I ) was low durlng the first fortnight of re.
Won number
actor operation, indicating that the earthworms, which
had been cultured with cowdung as the principal feed,
took some time to acclimatize with the changeover to
water hyacinth feed. As the reactor outputs had been
fluctuating, albeit within a narrow range, trend lines
were drawn using an appropriate software (Microsoft,
1997) in order to assess whether the fluctuations were
leading to a net rising, falling, or steady vermicast out.
put. The results indicated rising trends of small slopes
(Fig. 1). Further, successive runs yielded a fairly con.
sistent recovery, agreeing to within 3% of each other.
The vermicast output from reactors run in duplicate was
also reproducible; the duplicates agreeing to within 4%
in most runs. As the reactors were comprised of poorly
mixed, heterogenous sokds, this level of agreement
within duplicates may be deemed quite good.
The average mass of the earthworms of all the four
species increased (Table 2) by close to three orders of
magnitude, and was still increasing as reflected in the
last three runs. We would, therefore, expect that the
vermlcast output would continue to rise till the earth.
worms reached the height of feeding activity. Thereafter
it might decline as the carthwonns lived beyond their
most active age.
All species of earthworms reproduced successfully in
these reactors (Table 3). Had the ofspring not been
continuously moved, the earthworm population in
reactors with P, excovorus, L, mauririi and D willsi
would have almost doubled and in reactors with E eu-
A B C 0
DMtnntymlcr
118 2 Numbr djumlb prod4 by 20 nnlrnls d. ,K rupw lul, P t~niurus (b), L MU~NII (c), D 11111st (6) OW llX monlhr

genioe it would have increased two-and.a-half times Abbas~. S.A., Ramasam). E V.. 1996 Utlbzatton oi bmwanr soildi b!
(Figs. I and 2). On the basis of this observation, one can ertractlng volatile lauy ac~ds wllh suhxquent conversion ro
assume that all the reactors might continue to run indefinitely
on the water hyacinth feed, with new generattons
of earthworms gradually taking over the
vermiconversion as the previous generation gradually
methane and manure In Proceed~ngi ol the Twelfth internat~onrl
Conienncc on Solid Waste Technology and Management Phild.
delph~a, pp. 4CI4C8.
Abbasi. S.A., Ramanmy. E.V.. 19998. In Blolechnologral Methods
01 Pollution Control Oriem Longman (Unlrerslas prca lndli
declined In activity and died.
Ltd). Hyderabad, pp 168
In terms of the efficiency of vermiconversion of water
hyacinth (as reflected in the mass of vermiasts produced
per unit tlme for the given rate of feed input),
the animal spectes followed the trend E eugeniae >
P. excouatus > L mnurlrir > D. wiiisi. Similar trends
were observed for increase in animal b~omass (Table 2),
and number of offspring produced, with the exception
that in the latter aspect L, mourirli was indistinguishable
from D. wiiisi,
In our earlter experiments w~th the performance of
vermireaclors run on these four species and with waste
paper as the principal feed, we had found that the geophytophagous
L mouririi was not only the most efficient
producer of vermtcasts but also generated more offspring
during the six-month long trials (Gajalakshmi
et al., 2000). In the present instance. the phytophagous
E, eugeniae and P cxcouarus were seen to score over the
tao geophytophagous, or anecic, specter. Bestdes the
fact that water hyacinth is phytomass and ought to be
Abbaa. SA.. Ramasamy. E.V., 1999b. Anaerobc dtgca~on of h~gh
solid wass. In. Prdings 01 Eighl Natlonal Symposium on
Envtronmcnt IGCAR, Kalpakkam. lnd~a. 20-22 July, 220-224
Abbas~. S A , Ramassmy. E.V.. Gajalakshmi. S., 2tXW) Wetland
ralarauon. mosquito control. boost to agricuiturc and cmplo).
ment gsneratlon through b~ofanvcrston olsater hyac~nlh Rtporl
submlttcd to Department olwlence, Technology and Env~ronment.
Government of Pondeherry. pp 48.
Arhok Kumar. C.. 1994. State olthc Art Reporr on Vemtculture ~n
Ind~a. Councll lor Advanamen! 01 Peoples Acl~on and Rural
Technology (CAPART). New Dclhl, pp M)
Gajalakshml. S . Rammmy. E.V., and Abbasl, S A , 2W Scran~ng
01 lour rpcele5 of dctr~tivorous Ihumuslormer) earthworms lor
sustalnablc vemlcomposung of papr wars Env~tonmenvai
Technology. In pnsr
Gaur, AC, S~ngh. G. 1991 Recycling of rural and urbm wssics
through conventional compostlng and vermtcompostlng. In: Tandon.
H L S. (Ed i. Rccyci~ng olcrop. animal, human and lndustrtal
wastes I" agr~cultun, Fertilller Development and Consultat~on
Organisation, Neu Deihi. 3149
Ismail. S.A., 1997 Vcrmlcology the Biology 01 Earthworms Orlenl
Longman. Hyderabad, pp 92
Ismail. S A. 1998 Thc wntnbuten of soil fauna espcclally the
naturally preferred by phytophagous species, the relative carthwomr to roll lert~l~ty In. R-dbnp 01 the Workshop on
'hardness' of waste paper feed may be a reason why
geophytophagous worms were able to feed upon it more
voraciously than d ~d the phytophagous species
Orpnr Farming, lnstttutc 01 Rnearch in Soil B>olog) and
B~otechnology. Thc New College. Chsnnat, pp 9
Lakshman, G.. 1987. Ecotshnolog~cal oppolivn~rtra for aquatlt
plants a ruwey 01 utii!lation oplxons In: Reddy. K R.. Sm~th.
W.H (Edr ). Aquatic plants lor water treatment and resource
Acknowledgements
recovery. Magnolta Publ~shlng Inc , FL, 49-68
Manna. M.C.. Lngh. M., Kundu. S, Tnpatht. A K.. Tukkar. P.h .
1997 Growth and rcproduct~on of the vcrmicompostlng earth.
The authors thank the Department of Sc~ence and
Technology. Government of India, New Delht, for financial
support. Dr Ramasamy thanks the Counctl for
worm Pelionn crrogwrua ar influcnnd by food malcnalr Blology
and Ferlility olS011ds 24 (I). 129-132.
Microsoit, 1997 Excel 97, Vcnlon 8.0
Ramasamy, E V.. I997 Btowartc treatment vtth anacrobt rcactorr.
Scientific and Industrial Research. New Delhi for the PhD thuls, submtttcd to Pondichcrry Unlven~ty. Pondcherry.
award of a Research Associateshtp.
India, pp. 3W.
Ramammy, E V, Abhsi. S A,. 2WO. Enhancement in thr tnarmmt
efficiency and convenlon to energy oi dalry wastewater h!
References
augmenting CST reactors wllh stmple btohlm supprl systcmr
Env~ronmental Technolog) (communicated)
Smk. M.M., 19W. Suppnssivems oi vermlcomposl agalnu
Abhasi. S.A. 1998. Wcrds ol dupalr, end hop. In Abbul.. et il. lunarlum wilt 01 tomato. Journal ol phytopsthology PhytopatholEds.1,
Wetland!, 01 Ind~a. vol. Ill. D~wovery Pubiish~ng Houx. log~rhc zttwhnlt 47. 155-161
New Delhi, pp 12-21.
Abhan. S A,, Nipancy, PC . 1986. lniestat~on by aquatic wrcda oilhe
Tchobanaglour. G.. Burton. F.L., 1999. Waraualer cnginecrlng
treatment, disposal. md reuw. Tala McGrawH~ll Publ~sh~np
lern @nus .ruluma Its sulur and control Env~ronmcntal Conser. Comp~ny Limltd. New Lklhi, pp 1334
vntlon 13. 235-241
Ahhasi. S A . Nlpancy. PC. IW3 Worlds woml wed yuB,mra) - ns
Tchobanaglaus. G.. Ma~uki. F.K.. Thornson. K.. Chadwlck. TH.
1989 Evoluaon and priormane ofczty 01 ran D~rgo pliol sale
lmpscl and ut~l~ntion Internauonai bmk D~str~butors. Dehradun. aquatlc waskwater treatment system usmg waier hyac~nth J
p. 226
WFCF61 111112)

a
ELSEVIER Bioresource Tnhnology 82 12(K121 165-169
Abstract
Chepter 5
Vermicomposting of different forms of water hyacinth by
the earthworm Eudrilus eugeniae, Kinberg
S. Gajalakshmi, E.V. Ramasamy, S.A. Abbasi '
C~nrnfor Pollullon Conrrolond Enrrgy Technology, Pond,chcrry Unlwrslly, Kaloprr, Pondchsty Mi5014 lndto
Rselved 4 May 2WI. rccclved In revtwd form 5 Seplembsr 2001; ampled 10 September 2WI
-
BlORfSOURCf
TfCt111010GY
SIX-month long trials were conducted on direrent vermlmctors fed with one of the followng forms of water hyacmlh: (a) fresh
whole plants. (b) drled whole plants. (c) chopped pleccs of fresh plants, (d) 'spent' weed taken horn reactors after extracting volatile
htt) actds (VFAs). (c) prccompostcd fresh weed and (0 precompsted spent weed. The first four forms were studied with and
wtthout cowdung The experiments revealed three clear trends (i) of the various forms of the weed assessed, the precompsted forms
were the most favoured as feed by Eudrllus eugunjue. Klnkrg, whlle the fresh whole form was the least favoured, ( i~) the different
Iorms of spent weed were ldvoured over the corresponding forms of fresh we&, and (iii) blending of cowdung (- 14% of the feed
mass) w11h dlllcrent forms ofwaler hyaclnth had a slgnificanl pslttvc Impact on vcrmicast output, growth in worm womass, and
production of ofspring relative to the corresponding unblended feed. In all reactors. the 'parent' earthworms steadily grew in size
ow the SIX-month span, and produced offspring There was no mortality. The cxpenrnents thus confirm that water hyactnth can be
sustalnably vcnnicompstcd In any ofthc forms with E eugentoe 0 2002 Elscvier Sclcnce Ltd. All nghb reserved.
Water hyac~nth grows profusely In freshwater bod~es,
espectally the ones grossly polluted with b~odegradable
wastes. It is one of the most intransrgent weeds of the
world (Abbast, 1998; Tchobanoglous and Burton, 1999).
It multipltes to form large tracts of dense stands In a
water.body, often pushing the water out of sight.
Water hyacinth has suacssfully resisted all attempts
of eradicating it by chemical, biological, mechansal, or
hybnd means (Abbasi and Ramasamy. 1999). A large
number of repow are available on the possible ways of
utilizing water hyacinth. These include use as paper
pulp, poultrylveterinary feed, material for furniture and
carry bags, soum of medicinals, elc. But the only utillzation
option that has proved economically viable is
deployment of the wad in purifying wastewaters
(T~hobano~lous et al., 1989; Tchobanoglous and Burton,
1999). But the quantity of wad that can be thus
utilized ia very small; indad beyond the 'seed' plants
needed to start the wastewater purification systems, one
-Z
Cornlpondinp author, hl.. +91413-655263165526Y655267; fax
+91413655.227.
E.lnalla&~f: pmf-abhsi@ml.mm (S.A. Abbaal.
""452~0~. m front rnntur 0 1OO1 Elwvler Eiem Ltd. All rt8htr y r p ~ d .
P1'~s096~.8511(01
100163.8
50
does not need water hyacinth growing in nature for this
purpose. Furthermore, the water hyacinth that grows In
wastewater tteatment systems has to be periodically
harvested and disposed of, just as the weed growtng in
nature has to.
The authors have been making attempts to find other
economically viable means of utilizing water hyacinth;
these include the extraction of volatile fatty actds
(VFAs) from water hyacinth to supplement cowdung as
feed in biogas digesters (Abbasi and Ramasamy, 1996,
1999; Ramasamy and Abbasi, 2000), and soltd-feed
anaerobic digestion of the wad to generate fuel as
methane (Ramasamy. 1997; Abbasi and Ramasamy,
1999). Even as these options arc gainful, the problem of
disposal of spent wed ensuing from VFA extractors,
anaerobic digestion, or wastewater treatment systems
still remains.
In this paper, we present studies on the performance
of the eanhworm, Eudrilus rugeniac Kinberg in gener-
ating vermicasts from dierent verminactors fed with
various forms of water hyacinth a$ fed. We had earlier
obsnvcd (Abbasi et a]., 2000) that water hyacinth, even
Or form' has Ihe ability lo vegeta.
tively propagate itself; the wad loses this ability once it
pasw through the earthworm's gut Further, vermicasl

I hd .V G

ensure that the rate of vermiconvers~on was neither in-
fluenced in the long run by the unutilized feed accu-
mulating and biodegrading in the reactors nor by the
vermicasts produced by the offspring of the parent
earthworms.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Reproducrb~liry of the reacror performance
Epigeic (phytophagous) species like E, eugenicre have
very shallow burrows in which they he during the day.
Being nocturnal animals, their feeding activity is brisk
only during the night when they pull the feed from the
reactor surface and ingest it in the11 burrows. They come
to the reactor surface again to deposit the casting. This
mechanism Indicates that vermlreactors used in the
present study can k classified as 'poorly mixed hetero-
geneous solid reaction systems'. An illustrative se! of
reactor output data is presented in Table I. The duplicates
agree to w~thin 12.3 mg of vetmicast output, the
maximum relative error - in run number 3 -is 7%. In all
other runs (of which the results have been summarized
in Fig. I), too, the scatter in the vetmicast output In any
given run was always less than ~ 2.5 mg. Considering the
heterogenity of these bloreactors, this level of reproducibility
may be considered as very good.
3.2 Gesiarion and vermicasr ourpur rrendr
Illustrative curves of vetmicast output in two reac.
tors, as a function of time, along with statistical trend
lines which were drawn by using the software Microsoft
Excel (1997) are presented in Fig. 2. In the first two runs
the vetmicast output was low, indicating a gestation
per~od. The earthworms used in [he present experiments
had been cultured on cowdung-fed reactors. The gesta.
Table I
Rcproducibli~ly oi lhc rcaclor performance llluslrallvs example of vcrmlcarl aulpul (gl per ionn~ght I" dupl~cale rtaclon fed wllh 15 g oi
prsomposled waler hjaclnth pr larlnrght
Run (each of l5 days), oumkr Rtactoi I Reanor I1 Avcra$ciS D. Rclatm enoi (%,)
I 31.2 33 32 1109 2 8
2 31 7 35.3 33 5i 1.8 5.4
3 30 6 35.2 129123 7.0
Flp I. Rodw~on ofvennwns ("/I offad mua) by E eu~eaar ,n mtors fed with diRemt fonnrof water hydnth: (11 prsampled spnt wed.
(1) Pmpourd WH: (31 rpnl wed and wwdung (6:I): (4) WH and cowdung (6:t); (5) Ipnl used: (6) dncd whole plant and mwdung (6'11;
(7) dried whok plant: (8) WH, (9) fmh whole plant and mwdung (6 I): 110) imh wh0k plrnl

i;!/
f fl
I"' 10.
s
i
0-
1 ~ 3 1 5 0 7 ~
(4 Runs (and 15 day)
0 ~ 0 1 1 1
(dl
1z 2 3 4 5 a 1 8 8 1 0
Run [each 15 Ow) 1 1 1 2
Rg 2. Vcrm~casl rccovcrj as a luncllon of lime The th~n ilra~gh! Ilnes represents lhc rnnd id) Precompond rpnl weed. ibl dried whole plan1
r~lhoul cowdung: (cl rpen! weed and cawdung 16 1). Id1 frcih whole plant and cowdung (6.1)
tion perlod lmplies that they took some tlme to get used
to water hyacinth feed. The trend lines indlcate that the
reactor output was still rising. We presume that it would
peak of only after the earthworms crossed their most
active age which, as per reports, averages 12 months
post-adulthood for manure.woms such as E rugenrae.
The maximum mass of castings per unit feed mass
and time (SIX-month average: 56.2%) was produced from
precomposted spent water hyacinth (Fig. I) This was
closely followed by precomposted water hyacinth. Progressively
less palatable to E eugenrae were fresh
chopped plants, dried whole plants, and fresh whole
plants [Fig. I). In all cases, water hyacinth fortlfied w~th
cowdung was vermiconverted at a higher rate than the
unfortified weed.
The results (Fig. I) indicate that E eugenioe prefers the
feed in this order: pmompostcd spent weed > precomposted
chopped weed>spent weed fortified w~th cowdung
> chopped weed fortified with cowdung > spent
weed > dried whole plants fortified with cowdung > dried
whole plants - chopped weed > fresh whole plants with
cowdung > fresh whole plants.
The spent water hyacinth is the softest of these feeds,
softer than 'fresh' chopped weed because the former
typically spends four or more days under dilute aqueous
solution in the VFA generation reactors. This makes the
plant more blotched and pulpy than fresh water hya-
1s i
10,
cinth which is mostly above water In ~ts natural state.
Further, VFA reactors only extract some C, H and 0
from the weed; N, P, K, and other nutnents are not
removed. This. apparently, leaves the spent weed softer
but no less nutr~tious than fresh water hyacinth. Pre.
composted forms of water hyacinth are preferred over
uncomposted forms due to the same reason; composting
renders the feed softer than it was.
An interesting and useful finding is that dried whole
water hyacinth plants are vennicomposted faster than
fresh chopped and fresh whole plants (Fig. I). The
practical util~ty of this observation stems from the fact
that large quantities ofwater hyacinth may be harvested
in situations where it may not be possible to vermicompost
it on-site, thus necessitating transportation.
And since water hyacinth contains 9696% water, drying
it to less than half its fresh weight before transpar.
tation can substantially reduce the transportation costs.
The reason why worms are able to feed upon the dried
weed more easily than fresh form is that the drled plants
become brittle and become more easily utilizable by the
worms than the harder and more tensile whole plants.
The number of ofspring produced and the net in.
crease in worm zoomass (Fig. 3) in the various reaclors
followed the trend of net vennicast output with the three
exceptions: the worm zoomass gained with cowdungfortified
spent weed was slightly higher than with precomposted
waM1 hyacinth, the zoomass gained with
fresh chopped water hyacinth was greater than drled
water hyacinth, and the number of ofspring produced

-- -
0Nurnter ofotlspdw m u d ONM i m u s in m ~ m zoomwg
. - -. 3
(6 1): (71 dned whole planl. (81 WH 191 fresh wholc plant and cowdung (6.11, (10) fmh whole plan;
wtth fresh chopped water hkacinth was greater than wtth
drted water hyacinth.
There was no mortality in any of the 20 reactors. In
all reactors the an~mals grcu in stzc and produced off.
spring, alte~t to d~Rerent degrees These observations
confirm that E eugenioe can be utilized to suslatnably
vermicornpost different forms of water hyacinth in semiconttnuously
fed reactors
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Department of Sctence and
Technology, Government of India. New Deih~, for the
financial support.
Abbiir~.S.A. 1998 WKds oidespa~r. and hop In Abbdsl. S.A .el al
(Ed5 1. Walandr of Indla, vol Ill D~rcovery Publ~shing Housr.
New Drlh~. pp 12-21.
Abbari, S.A . Ramasam). E V., I996 Ut111ra11on oi'b~ousslr roltdr b)
ertractlng volat~le lalty ac~ds with subsequent conversion to
methane and manure. In Profssdlngs of the 12th lnternat~onal
Conlcrcnce an Sohd Wastc Tahnology and Managment. Phlladclphla,
pp 4CI-4C8.
Abbas~, S A,, Ramasamy, E.V , 1999. Anaerobic digestion of hlgh
solid waste. In Procdlngs of E~ghth Nattonal Symposium on
Envlronmenr IGCAR, Kalpakkam, Inda. 2CL22 July. pp. 220-
224
Abban, S.A.. Ramasamy. E.V., Gajalaksm, S.. 2000. Wedand
mtorauon, mosquito control, boost to agricultun and employ.
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Repon rvbmlttd to Dspanmcnt 01 nencr. Technology and
Envaonmenl, Government of Pondlchem, Pondlchem. Ind~a.
P 48
Galalakshm~, S.. Ramasamy. E V , Abbaai. S.A . 2WI Potential of
two epigcic and two anecs eanhwon rpcaes In vermicomposting
water hyacinth B~omourcc Trhnal 76, 177-181.
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Ramasarny. E V., 1997. B~owarte treatment w~th anacrob~c mactorr,
Ph D chests. Pond~chsrry Unlvenlly. Pandtcherry. Indla, p 3W
Ramasamy. E.V. Abbaa. S.A. 2000. Enhancement In the treatmsnt
cffielcncy and conventon to energy of daq wastewater by
sugrnentlng CST Mcton wlth ~lmplc btofilm ruppon systems.
Environ T~hnol. 22, 561-565
Tchobanoglour, G . Bunon. F.L.. 1999. In. Wnstewar englnnrlngtreatment,
disposal, and reuu. Tala McGraw.Hill. New Delhl,
p 1334.
Tchabanoglour. G.. Maltski. F K., Thamron. K., Chadwtck. TH.
1989 Evolut!on and pcrlormance of city 01 san Dlego pilot scale
aquatic wnstcwater treatment system urlng water hyacmh. 1.
WPCF 61 l11112).

Chapter 6
ELSEVIER Biorcmurit Technology SO (MOI) 131-135
BlORfSOURCf
TKtlK>lO(lY
Assessment of sustainable vermiconversion of water hyacinth at
different reactor efficiencies employing Eudrilus eugeniae Kinberg
S. Gajalakshmi, E.V. Ramasamy, S.A. Abbasi '
Cenlrcfor Pollurion Canrroi and Energy Technology. Pondlckry Unlwrlry. Xnlapr. Pondicherry MIS 014, Indw
Received 4 March 2WI; received in mid form 6 April 2531; accepted I2 April 2WI
The viability of vermireactors led with direrent propodons ofwater hyacinth (WH) and cowdung (CD) was assessed over SIX.
month trlair All reactors perlormcd suslainablv with a steadily rising vcrmicast outvut, worm zoomass, and number of ofs~ring
There was no monailty inany of the reactors, change in tie WH~D ratios from 4:l to 6:l had no dircernable impact on tie
reactor performances Attempts were also made to improve the efficiency of the reacton in terms of vermicast production per unlt
tlme and per unlt digester voiume. These attsmots led to the 'hinh.rate' vermireactor in which 5.6 times greater vermicast was
produced per lltre of digester volume per day than'in the 'low-rate' rLcton. The high-rate vermimctonalso performed sustainably,
w~th steady vermicast output, animal growth, and reproducdon. Q 2001 Elvvier Scien~x Ltd. All rights reserved.
Krywords Vcrm~rnrnposang, Water hyacinth. Eudrilw eugmurc; Vermiurt; Vmimdon
Water hyacinth (WH; Eichhornia crassipes Man.
Solms) continues to justify the sobriquet of 'the world's
worst weed' by defying all the attempts that have been
made across the world of eradicating it or finding
commercially viable methods of its large-scale utiliza-
tion (Gajalakshmi et al., 2001; Abbasi and Krish-
nakumari, 1996; Abbasi and Ramasamy, 1999). The
only use of WH that has found world-wide acceptance
1s in treating biodegradable wastewaters (Tchobanog-
lous and Burton, 1999; Tchobanoglous tt a]., 1989).
But the quantities of the weed that can be utilized in
this manner are very low. Further this utilization op
lion leaves the basic problem of disposal of the weed
unsolved.
Vermicomposting is a labour-intensive, simple, and
inexpensive process by which non-toxic organic solid
wastes can be bioconverted to generate soil conditioners
popular with farmers (Ismail, 1997). We found out
earlier (Abbasi et a]., 2000) that the remains of WH,
which came out as vermicast from earthworm guts, had
lost their ability to vegetatively reprodua, or grow.
Wfd.812M)ln. ue front mruer 0 2M)I Elrvier kienrr Lld. All righu
~II:S0960.8124(01)00077~3
Encouraged by this we have been exploring the possi.
bilities of vermicomposting WH so that large masses of
the weed can be prdcessed close to the lakes, ponds,
canals, and swamps where the weed grows profusely.
Smening of four spxies of anhworms for vermicom-
posting WH (Gajalakshmi et a]., 2001) revealed that
Eudrilus eugenhe produced more vermicasc as well as
offsprings per unit time in WH-fed vermireactors than
Perionyx excawtus Pemer, Lampito mouritii Kinberg,
and Drawih willsi Michaelson. For this reason we have
conducted the present study with E. eugenlae as the
main bioagent.
Six-month long experiments were first conducted on
vermireactors which had 20 animals per 3 I reactor
volume, and which were given 75 g feed (dry weight)
every fortnight consisting of WH (fmh, chopped to
pieces of -6 cm length) and cowdung (CD) in dry
weight ratios of4:1,5:1, and 6:l. The animal density and
feed quantity in the reactors were so kept, as these have
bem described as 'ideal' by past workers (Ashok Ku.
mar, 1994; Dash and Senapati, 1986). In the second
phase of the experimentation we increased the earth.
worm density in the reactors 12.5 times. The fad
loading rate was also increased by the same magnitude.
The reactors were operated for s'i months to assess
the sustainability and efficiency of the new mode of
operation.

2. Methods
2.1. Firs! phase
Vermibeds of effective volume 3 1 were prepared by
filling 4 1 plastic containers with sawdust, river sand, and
soil in layers I, 2, and 3.8 an deep, respectively (from
bottom upwards). In each reactor, 20 healthy adult
animals of the species E. eugeniae were introduced. This
level of animal density has ken earlier recommended as
tdeal for vermireactors by other workers (Ashok Ku.
mar, 1994; Dash and Scnapati, 1986). The animals were
randomly picked from the culture of over 2W animals,
with CD as the feed, maintained by the authors. The
average moisture content of the vermireactors was
maintained at 45 i I% by monitoring the content at
different heights of the reactors every week and sprin-
kling the required quantities of water. Usually the top
one-third of the reactors had 29i 1% moisture, the
middle one-third 45 k I%, and the bottom one-third
61 1 1%. All quantities were adjusted so that the feed
and the casting mass reported in this paper npresmt dry
wetghts (taken after oven-drying at IOS0C to constant
weight). The earthworm biomass is reported as live
weight, taken after rinsing adhering material off the
worms and blotting them dry. The castings were care.
fully sieved to separate other particles. A portion of the
castings was then weighed and thoroughly washed with
wsler to separate the small soil particles contained in the
casttngs from the organic matter. The separated soil was
oven-dried (105°C) to constant weight. Th~s enabled
determination of the mass fraction of soil particles
contained in the castings. This fraction was subtracted
from the total mass of the recovered castings. Thus, the
vermiconversion data presented in the paper pertain to
conversion of only the feed to the castings, and exclude
the entrained soil.
Three sets of reactors, all Nn in duplicate, were
startedwith 75 g of feed composed ofWH:CD in 4:1,5:1
and 6:l ratios (WN, dry weight in different ratios).
Once in every 10 days the castings and the earthworms
were removed and placed in separate containers for
quantification, while the rest of the reactor contents
were discarded. Within a few minutes, fresh reactors
were restarted with everything else being the same except
that from the earthworms removed from the previous
run, the juveniles, if any, generated were separated, and
the 20 worms with which the reactors were started were
weighed and reintroduced.
2.2. Second phase
Table I
Recovery 01 vermlsast ar s function of time in low.rate reactom (I, 11) with the id WH:CD ~n 4:l ratio
For this phase vermireactors were set up, operated,
and monitored in exactly the same fashion as the reac-
tors in the first phase, with the exception that the pop-
ulations of E. eugenine in these reactors were maintained
at 250 animals per reactor and the feed loading rate was
950 g in each lOaay run. Thus, the animal densities and
feed loading rates were -12.5 times higher in these re-
actors than in their 'low-rate' counterparts.
Days Vcrmlurl output (mg I" d") lnmx in worm mom^ (8) Numk of oRspnng
I I1 Avg. I I1 Avg. I I1 Avg
10 840 950 895 18.5 18.9 18.7 0 0 0
Avp. 1164.P 1183.3' 1116.P 18.5' 18.7~ 18.6' 32' 38 31'
'Average vennicu~ output, mg I-' d-'.
"N ~ncrulc in ~lMwonn ~ M U I, , in i x months.
'Numk of ofipri~ pmid in 1 monlbs.

3. Rewlts ad discumlon 1-3. During the first 10 days of operation the vermicast
output as well as growth in the worm zoomass was low,
3.1. First phase As the worms had been cultured to adulthood on CD
fad before they were introduced to the predominantly
The performance of vemireactors fed with diferent WH-fed reactors, they had apparently taken some time
proportions of WH-CD blends is summarind in Tables to adapt to the new fad. From the second run onwards
.--.- -
Rccovcry of vermlcnst sa a function 01 time In low-rat revtors (I. 11) with the W W C D in 5:I ntio
Days Vem~casl output (mg I-' d-') lncrcaac m worm mow (g) Number of offspring
I I1 Avg I 11 Avg. I 11 Avg.
10 9W.2 856.7 878.5 19.1 19.4 19.2 0 0 0
Avg II55.8' 1111.31 11336' 16.11 16.5' 16.3' UT 26' 28(
'Average vermisaal output, mg I~' d-'
'Net lncreaae m sanhwom zooman, g. In SIX months
'Number of offspring produced In ia monlhr
Table 3
Rrovcr] of vcm~cast as a funcuon of llmc ~n low.ratc reactors wilh the fed WH:CD in 6:1 ntio
Daya Vcrm~casl oulput lmg I' dll lncrcas ~n worm womw (g) Number of oiTspting
I
Avg.
920
990
1136.7
1120
1113.3
1130
11567
1173.3
11633
1230
1203.3
IIW
12167
124.7
1263.3
I330
1296.7
1323 3
. -
'Nu ikmr in oanhworm zoomaw. g. In SIX months
'Number ofof~pring pmdd in sir months.
18.6
19.7
m.7
21.6
23.3
25.5
26.6
28.3
M.9
31.1
31.5
32.1
32.7
33.4
34.1
W.9
35.6
s.7
Avg. -
0
0
0
0
0
1
0.5
1
1
2.5
3
2 5
3.0
1
2
3.5
4
3

134 S Cnpluk~hi rr nI 1 Biorrnrvrn
the worm activity became manifestly more brisk and the
first crop of offspring appeared in two of the four reactors
by the 40th day. Trend lines were drawn with the
software Microsoft Excel (Excel 97, Microsoft, 1997) to
assess whether the vermireactor performance was tending
towards further increase, decrease, or no change in
output; a typical set of curves is presented in Fig. 1. It
indicates that the vermicast output, worm zoomass, and
production of offspring have all registered net increasing
trends over time even though the variables have Ructuated
in different runs.
The output in duplicates agreed with each other
within relative errors of *lPh in a few cares, and within
is% in most cases. This level of reproducibility can be
deemed very good considering that the reactants are
made up of poorly mixed solids. The six-month average
vermicast output in the thra 'low-rate' reactors was
w~thin the narrow range 1170i 20 mg I-' d-I. The net
Increase in worm zoomass ranged from 16.3 B (5:l reactors)
to 18.6 g (4:) reactors). The number of offspring
produced was 28 in 5:l and 6:1 reactonand 31 in the41
reactor. Further, the net vermicast output was marginally
higher in 4:l ratio WH:CD reactors than in 5:l
WH:CD reactors but the latter was less than the vermast
output from 6:1 WH:CD reactors. All these re.
sults point towards the absence of a consistent trend
which might have linked proportion of CD in the
WH:CD blends to vermicast output, growth In the
worm zoomass or extent of reproduction. We, therefore,
conclude that a dsrease In the proponlon of CD from
4 1 to 6 1 In the WH:CD blends docs not adversel~ effect
the vermireactor performance. This finding is significant
because CD is a valued bioproduct in the third world,
with numerous uses in the households and on farms. If
the vennireacton can be successfully operated at
WH:CD mass ratios of 6:l or higher, it would mean
larger masses of the wed could be processed with
smaller inputs of CD.
3.2. Second phase
The 'high-rate' vermireacton fed with 6:l WH-CD
blend were 5.6 times more efficient, generating an av.
erage 6481.9 mg vermicast per litre of digester volume
per day (Table 4) against the output of
11 57.4 mg I-' d-I achieved in the lower-rate digesters
operated on 6:l WH-CD blend (Table 3). Even though
the earthworm density was 12.5 ties more in the high.
rate reactor than in the low-rate ones, there was no
mortality over six months. The worm zoomass regis.
i.8 . Verm~ertt mconr) (cuunpproduerd m uch nn lmm l! goflad.capm~d ,n pmnlue) Ir funnao~olvorm dmr.~) arc 1111 'LO*.
:lW nlrton *,In 15 n 01 fed composed 01 WH CD .n 4 1, 1 1.6 I mhor, (*nu 00 uu(n1) 6 H!Jn.mtr ruoon ullt '5 8 or la0 mmW o!
wsltr WH:CD in 4:1:5:1, 6:l mtia (wlw, dry wpht). The th~n stnight lmer hdma the trend

S Gajoiokrhml n 01. I Bioraourct Technology 80 (2Wll 131-IJJ 135
Tabk 4
Recovery of verm~cast as 8 funcuon of time in high-rate reacton with the Id WH:CD In 6:) ntio
Days Verm~east ourput (mg I-' d-') l n m in worm uxrmasr (g) Numkr of ofrpnng
I 11 Avg. 1 11 Avg. I I1 Avg.
10 5551.5 6W 6008.8 170.3 116.7 173.5 -
20 5652.5 5985 5818.8 179.6 1864 1831 -
Avg 6415.7 6548.1' M81.P 939
'Average vennlcast output, mg I-' d.'.
'Net lncease in clnhworm womars. g, In sir months.
'Numkr of ofspnng produced In se months.
lered a net gain of 101.6 g over the initial 173.5 g. There
was consistent reproduction, too; an average of 87 off-
springs were produced per reactor. There was no dis.
cernible difference in the colour or morphology between
the adults or offspring from the high-rate reactor, the
low.rate reactor, or the ones taken from CD-fed cul-
tures. All these observations confirm the viability of the
high-rate vermireaction concept and the suitability of
WH as a vermifeed. Funher, as vermireactors require
little energy or other expensive inputs for their opera-
tion, the major source of cost is the vermireactor. By
increasing vermicast output per unit digester volume 5-6
times in the 'high-rate' reactors, the entire benefit-cost
ratio of WH vermiwnvcrsion is being improved by a
similar magnitude.
The authors thank the Department of Science and
Technology. Government of India, New Delhi, for fi.
nancial support.
Abban. S.A. Knahnakumari, P.K.. 1996. Biowastc tmtmenl wilh
rnlcrnb~c dipt1ers:dwl rok of huvy meuls. In: R dinp of
Twelfth lnarnatio~l Conferme on Sold Waste Technology and
Managnrmt. Philrdelphi PA, USA Novemkr 17-20. 4C9-
4D13.
Abbaai. S.A.. Ramrrsmy. E.V., 1999 Biotcchnolopcal Methods
of Pollullon Control. Omnt Lonpan, Hyderabad, 168
PP.
Abbas~. S.A.. Ramoramy, E.V.. Gajalakshmt, S, 2WO. Wetland
nllorntion, moaqullo wnaol, boost to lgncultvre and employ
mnt generation through biaonwnion ofwatcr hyadnlh. Repon
submntcd to Dcgs~tmcDt of*, Technology and Environment,
Government d Pondxhery, 48 pp.
Ashok Kums, C., 19%. Sulc of the An Rcpn on Vemuculture a
Indu. Council for Advurnmat of Ppopla Anion and Rural
Technolom (CAPART). New Delhi, MI pp.
hrh, M.C., SmrpIi, B.K., 1986. Vmnik&nohgy. an opuon for
orpnic waste rmnapaacot in India. In. Dash, M.C.. Scnapau.
B.K., Muhm P.C. (Edr.), Pmardinp of National hinar on
OTganic Wa1te Utilintion by Vmniwmpting, h n B:Venns and
Vmniwmpatin& pp. 157-172.
Gajlkshrnl. S, Rlmuuay, E.V., Ahbasi. S.A., 2W1 Potenual
of No cpipic and two an& earthworn rpcia in Verml.
mmpcsung waul hywinlh. Blonsoum Technology 76.
177.111 ..
lundl. S.A., 1991., in: Vcrnhlo~ - the Biology of Earthworms.
Orient Longnsn. HydmW, pp. 92.
Micmrolt 1997, Eml 97. Version 8.0.
TchoQno~oua. G., Bunon, F.L., 19%. 10: Wastewater Englnunng
-Trulmmt. Drpoul md Reur. Tau M&rsw.Hili, New Dslhl.
pp. 1334
Tchobsnoglou, G., Mlitaki, F.K.. Thomso~ K., Chadwick. T.H..
1989. Ewlulion and prlonnrmc of dty of San Dlego p11ot rale
aqutk w~~tewaurtmmntayr~emwing water hyacinth. Journul
WPCF 61 (11112).

ELSEVIER B~oroource Technology 83 OW!I 215.219
P
Chapter 7 bIOi?8OUR(f
TfCH1010GY
___P=
High-rate composting-vermicomposting of water hyacinth
(Eichhornia crassipes, Mart. Solms)
Qi?rrl,
S. Gajalakshmi, E.V. Ramasamy, S.A. Abbasi'
fir. POIIIIIINII L.o,,fro/ md fircq~ Tc~~'cc6lmio~1~. Pondshrr.i;r Uo~rrif!. Kulupri. Pondici~rrrb 605 014 lnBa
Rccnvcd I7 Septcrnkr 2001: recrtvad ~n rcvlwd lorn 6 Novmber 2WI, accepted 7 November 2WI
In an altempl to develop a system with whlch the aquatic weed water hyacinth (Eirhi~orniu rror.rrprs. Mart. Solrns) can be
economically processed to generate vermicompost In largequanttttes, the weed was first cornposted by a 'htgh-rate' method and then
subjected to verm~composting In reactors operattng at much larger densities ofearthworm than recommended h~therto: 50,62.5, 75.
87 5. 100. I i? 5. 125, 137.5, and I50 adults of Eudriius eugenioe Kinberg per litre of digester volume.
The cornpostlng step was accomplished in 20 days and the comported wwd was found to be vermtcomposted thrw times as
~.ap~dly as uncomposted water hyaclnrh [B~oresource Technology 76 (2WI) 1771 The studlcs substantiated the feasibil~ty of h~gh.rate
compost~ng-vermicomposunp systems, as all reacton ylclded consistent vermlcast output during seven months of opcratlon. There
was no earthworm moriai~ty dur~ng the first four months In spite of the high an~mal denstt~es in the reactors In the subsc~urnt three
months a total of 79 worms dled ;ul of 1650. representing fess than 1.6''?~ mortality pcr month. Thc results also indicaicd that an
Increase In the surface.to-volume ratio of the reactors rn~ght further improve then efficiency Q 2W2 Publtshed by Elwvler Science
Lid
Er, turirri~ Cc,rnposllng. Vcrm~composl~np. Water hyuc~nth. Eici~i>ornrv ijilrriprr. Eudriiui vugpniot
1. Introduction
We have described (Gajalakshmi et al.. 20018) water
hyaclnth (Eici~hornra (m.~.\ipn Mart. Solms) as one of
the most productive and hardy of all weeds and no
attempt to control or destroy it by chemsal, biological.
mechanical, or hybrid means has ever achieved total
success (Reddy and Smtth. 1987; Ramasamy. 1997;
Abbasi et al.. 1997). We have also recapitulated (Ga.
~akdkshmi et al.. 20014 [hat the only means of utiliza.
Iton of water hyacinth which has proved economically
viable across the world (treatment of biodegradable
wastewaters, Tchobanoglous and Burton, 1999) st~ll
leaves the problem of final disposal of the weed un.
solved. It1 this background we had taken up stud~es on
verm~composting of water hyacinth (Gajalakshmi et al.,
2001a). After screening four of the faster growing (hence
voracious feed-consuming) specles of earthworms -
Q9hfl.R5!4111!/~. .W lront mutter & 21392 Published by Elwvsr Sclelln Ltd
PII S~lYhO~85!4~01l002l6~4
Eudrilus eugenloe Kinberg, Lumpiio maurrrii Kinberg,
Pcrronjv excoverus Perrier, and Drawldo wiilsi Mich.
aelson - we had found that E eugenioe and P excovorus
produced more vermicast output per unit time, more
zoomass, and more ofspring during six months of di.
gester operation than the two anecics L. mauriri~ and D.
~~'illsr. Between the two epigeics, E. eugeniae was clearly
the better performer. Hence it was identified for further
studies on water hyacinth.
We have also conducted a serlcs of long-term expei
iments (Gajalakshmi et al., 2001b) on the vcrmicomposting
of water hyacinth fed to vermireactors in several
different forms - fresh whole plants, chopped plants,
'spent' plants taken from reactors in which volatile fatty
ac~ds were extracted from the weed, dried plants etc.
Vermiconversion of these forms was studied with or
without cowdung supplement. Efect of shon.term par.
tial precomposting on the palatability of the weed was
also assessed. These experiments have indicated that
precomposting makes the weed more easily utilizable by
the worms than all other forms of water hyacinth
charged with or without cowdung in the vermireactors.
Lastly we have also determ~ned, by experimentation

(Gdjalakshmi et al., ZOOIc), that earthworm densities
higher than -7 animals I-' of reactor volume reported
as ideal by previous workers (Ashok Kumar, 1994; Dash
which was obtained by oven drying known quantities of
material at 105 T to constant weight.
and Senapathi, 1986) are sustainable.
We now report a seven-month long series of experi-
2.5. C:N ratio
ments in which water hyaclnth was first fully composted
and then subjected to vencomposting In 'high.rate'
reactors operating at UP to 21 times higher earthworm
densities than recommended earlier.
Carbon wasdetermined by a modified Walkely-Black
method and nitrogen by wet digestion as detailed else.
where ( R ~ 1993), ~ , ~ 11 chemicals used were analytical
reagent grade, and alkali-resistant borosilicate glass was
employed throughout. Water was de~onized and doubly
2. Methods
distilled in an all-glass still for analytical work.
2.1. E, eugenioe 2.6. Composring of worer hyacinth
Healthy, adult animals were randomly picked from
several cultures of over 2000 animals each mainta~ned by
us with cowdung as feed. Batches of animals thus picked
were thoroughly washed with distilled water to free them
from adhering soil and other particles, blotted dry, and
weighed, before releasing them in vennireactors.
The weed was harvested from natural ponds and
r~nsed very thoroughly with saline (2 M NaCI) water,
aqueous EDTA (2 g I-'), tap water, and distilled water
in this order to free it from adhering microflora and
muck. It was drained of most of the adhering water by
aoftly thrash~ng 11 against multiple folds of cotton cloth.
2 3. Cowdung slurry
Slurry from a cowdung-fed biogas d~gester was air
dr~ed. The 2 m' d~gester was a semi-cont~nuous, low-rate,
plug-flow reactor of ferrocement construction operating
at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of ca. 40 days.
Except the weight of earthworms, which was taken as
described earlier, all other quantities were dry weight
Table 2
Average net lncrura ,n worm zoomas In d~Aerenl reacton. g
The feed was prepared by composting water hyacinth
as a process earlier standardized in thts laboratory. It
consisted of setting up successive layers. 10 and 5 cm
thick, respectively, of washed water hyacinth and di-
gested cowdung slurry in 50 I wooden boxes. The slurry
was drawn from the effluent sump of the cowdung-fed
blogas digester described above. The organic solids were
topped with a 1 cm layer of garden soil. The entire
contents were sprinkled with adequate water to generate
average moisture content of -50% and were covered
with cardboard and thick black plastic sheets. The
temperature of the reactor contents was monitored with
a probe. After the initial setting, the compost boxes were
left undisturbed as the aerobic process or composting
started and gradually lifted the temperature of the re-
actor contents from the initial ca. 31 to 55-60 T within
5-8 days of the start. After another 3-4 days, the tem-
perature usually began to fall; at that stage the plastic
covers were removed and the contents thoroughly
mixed. The covers were then replaced and the boxes left
once again to continue the composting. In subsequent
cycles the temperature rose to ca. M) OC within 3-4 days
of mixing and remained at that level for another 3-4
days, before beginning to fall, signalling the need for
again mixing - which naturally caused aeration as well -
of the substrate. In this manner the water hyacinth
was turned into sludge-like compost in ca. 5 weeks.
Months Reactor Reactor Reactor Reactor Reactor Rsamor Reactor Reactor Rrctor
w~lh 200 w~th 2% wtlh 100 wllh 3% wllh 4W wllh 450 wllh SW wlth 550 wllh MX)
worms worms worms worms worms worms worms worms worms
ln~iiul 1348 165.5 198.9 229.5 2650 2968 310.1 363.8 396.6

238 S Gfuukdlil,a r1 01 I Bmrrrourit Tct$nu/ogl. BJ /liKl?l 135-239
The completion of composting was Indicated when
210
mixing the contents and keeping them undisturbed after
covering did not lead to a rise in temperature. The C:N
ratio of the compost, determined by standard methods I:!%-
(Rao, 1993) was 20.8.
ii .
2 7 Verririeonipusting
kept 30 i 2 under OC, relative identical humidity a m 60-709/") condition and were emratur provided
w~th protection from insects, rodents and other pests.
After I0 days from start the vermicast from each
reactor was harvested, treated for separation of soil, and
quantified as described earlier (Gaialakshmi et al.,
2001a,b.c). The animals were removed, separated from
offspring, if any, generated, and reintroduced into fresh
reactors which were identical to the reactors at the start.
In this manner it was possible to assess the vermicast
output of 'parent' worms as a function of I kg of feed
without competition from ofispr~ng. It also ensured that
the unutilized feed did not accumulate, and possibly
blodegrade. In the reactors.
1 €'W.
Vermireactors were set up as detailed earlier (Gajaldkshmi
et al., 200la) by filling 4 1 circular plasric
containers with successive layers of sawdust, river sand,
0
110 .
8 ,j
3 8so]
1 ,
soil, and hyacinth feed of depths I, 2, 3.8, and 2 cm.
respectively. The average moisture content of the reactors
was maintained at -45% by periodic monitoring
and appropriate replenishment as detailed earlier.
Nine sets of duplicates were provided with earthworm
if a.
;! W.
I E ;.
86 tm:
populations of 200,250,300,350,400,450,500,550, and
600 animals. Each of the reactors was supplied wlth I kg
o
of composted water hyacinth. The overall volume of the 01.
contents of each reactor was -4 1. All the reactors were
\
3. Results and discussion
The vemicast output from the 18 reactors, studied
for seven months, IS summarized in Table I. In all but
two cases, the output of the duplicates agreed to withln
iS1%: in the remaining two cases it was within +7 5%.
Tablc 3
Reproducl~on (average of cumulauvc numkr 01 oKrpr>ngl produced In d~ffcrcnt reactors
Rg. I. Vermlsart outpui, zoomass gamed, numkr of ofiprlng pro.
duced as functjon of worm dens~tl
The vermicast outputs in successive runs also agreed
to within i8%. These figures reflect good reproduclbil-
ity in the reactor performance, more so because the
reactors are essentially solid-feed heterogeneous sys.
tems.
The vermicast yleld consistently increased with worm
density - from the average 46.6% in 50 worm I-' redc.
tors to 93.4% in I50 worm I-' reactors - but it did not
do so by the same magnitude as the latter; a threefold
Months Reactors Reactors
w~ih !M) wnh 250
-
Reactori
w~lh 300
Reactors
w~th 350
Reactors
w~lh 400
R~dclors
with 450
Rcaclon
wilh 5M)
Reactors
w~rh 550
Rcactorr
wllh MX)
worms worms worms worms wormr worms worm$ worms wOrm1
I 10 8
2 29 22
3 43 12
11
20
15
12
22
34
7
19
28
10
21
28
8
19
25
6
15
25
7
17
25
4 MI 46 54 51 42 43 37 39 37
5 13 64 70 66 55 55 52 50 50
6 BY 79 87 84 70 7 I 65 63 51

Increase in the former caused only a twofold increase in
the latter. The vermtcast recovery-worm density curve
was extrapolated (figure not shown here), using the
forecasting package SMART (Abbasi and Arya, 2001).
It tndicatcd that ~ncrease in worm dens~ty beyond 125
animals I-' would cause little further increase In the
vermicast output.
The worm zoomass in each reactor increased with
time (Table 2). There was also product~on of ofspring in
all reactors during each and every run (Table 3) but the
increase in zoomass per t~ui?i~ as sell as Inumber of ofspring
produced pt'r it'orm sharply decl~ned w~th increase
In worm density (Fig. I).
Even as crowding is expected to adversely affect the
access of the animals to the feed, hence their growth,
and reproduction, it is also possible that the reactor
geometry may be contribut~ng to the loss of efficiency
per ttsorm. E eugeniae are surface dwelling eplgeics with
very shallow burrows. Thelr feeding, mating and rest.
Ing act~vit~es are largely confined to the reactor surface
It is, therefore, likely that an increase in surface-tovolume
ratio ofthe reactors m~ght enhance the access of
the animals to the feed, thereby contribut~ng better
vermicast production, growth, and reproduct~on per
ii.orrll even in the more crowded of vertnircactors.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Department of Sc~ence and
Technology, Government of Ind~a. Nes Delh~, for financtal
support
References
Abbasi. S.A. Ahbdsl. N , Bhat~a. K K S.. 1997 In. Wallundiof lndra.
Ecolog) and Threats. bol Ill. D~covcry Publ~shlng HOUK, Neu
Delh~. p v111+249
Abbasl. S.A . Arya. D S., 2WI SMART A new soRuare package for
environmental trend analys~s Journal of the Inst>~ution ol Public
Health Engmeerr. India, 40-51.
Ashok Kumrr. C.. 1994. Slate olthc Art Rsporl on Vcm~cullure ID
Ind~a, Counc~l lor Advancement of Peoples Aclron and Rural
Tcchnoiog) ICAPARTI. New Delh~. lndla, p Mi
Dash, M.. Senapsth~. B K. 1986 Vem~rechnolog). an opllon lo1
organic waru milnagemem In India In Dash. M C.. Smapatl,
B.K.. Mlshra. P C (Eds I. Proccedlngi olthe Ndt~onai Seminar on
Organic Waalc Uttllzation by Vermlcompsllng Purl B Vemimd
Vcrmrompastlng, pp. 157-172.
Gajalakshml. S. Ramils~my. E.V. Abbasl, SA. 2MIa Pounual of
two eplgelc and two aneclc earthworm spies tn vcrmicompastlng
water hyas~nlh. Bioresource Technology 16, 177-181
Gajalrkshm!. S.. Ramasamy, EV , Abhan. S A,. 2001b Vcrm~composting
ai dlferenl lorms of waler hyacinth by lhe earlhworm
Ewltilur uufcnlou, Klnbrrg Bioresource Technology ltn press1
Gil~alakshm~. S , Ramasamy. E.V , Abbaa. S A., 2001~ Arses~mcnt ol
avstarable vermlconverilon ol water byaclnlh at d!Rcrcnt reactor
effic~enc~cr employing Eudi.11~~ rugrnlae K~nberg. B~oresourcr
Tcchnology 80. 131.135
Ramasamy. E V. 1997 Bfowastc lredtment with anacrohc rcaclors
Ph D Thesis. Pandlcherry Un>vcn~t). Pond~cheiry. India. p 3W
isubmiticdl.
Ran, S A,, 1993 Analysis ol solll lor ava~lablc major nutrients In.
Tandon, H L S. (Ed 1. Methods of Analys~sof Solis. Plants, Waters
and Fcnilllerr. Fenlllwr Developmcnl and Consultal~on Organ).
zauon. Neu, Delhl, pp 15-19
Rcddy. K R. Smith. W.H.. 1987 In Aquat~c Ylana for Waler
Treatmen1 and Resource Recovery Magnolla Publ~shmg. Orlando.
p 687.
Tchobanoglous. G., Burlan, F.L., 1999 In Wanewatci Enginanng-
Treaimem, Dlsposal and Reua Tala Mffiraw.H~II. Ncw Delhi,
p. 1334

Part Ill
Vermicomposting
of paper waste

Part Ill
VERMICOMPOSTING OF PAPER WASTE
In India and elsewhere, particularly in the third world, paper waste produced
by households and small-sized offices is disposed in trash bins along with
other types of solid and semi-solid wastes. It eventually adds up to the large
quantities of municipal solid waste (MSW) that is typically piled up on land by
the side of households, agricultural fields, and highways, posing serious
problems of environmental pollution. Disposal of MSW in sanitary landfills
isn't yet prevalent in the developing countrieqand it is common to see piles of
MSW on the roadside or between buildings (Datta, 1999; Abbasi and
Ramasamy, 1999a).
In larger institutions, paper waste is periodically piled up and set on fire,
causing air pollution as also wastage of otherwise utilizable cellulose
contained in the paper. Only from very large offices, which produce paper
waste of the order of a few tons per week is such waste taken for reuse in
Kraft paper mills.
The authors have been trying to develop effective yet low-cost technology for
utilizing different components of municipal solid waste (MSW); these efforts
include solid-feed anaerobic digestion to produce methane (Abbasi and
Ramasamy, 1999b; Ramasamy and Abbasi,l999a; Ramasamy and Abbasi,
2000), and extraction of volatile fatty acids from agrowastes followed by
methanogenesis (Abbasi et a/, 1992, Ramasamy and Abbasi, 1999b). As a
part of these initiatives, vermicomposting of paper waste has been attempted
of which details are presented in this paper. The several likely advantages of
this utilization option are: a) it is capable of handling very low to very high
quantities of paper waste, b) it is simple and low-cost, thus appropriate for use
at household level in citiesltowns, and in villages, c) it can handle 'unclean'
paper (for example paper mixed with food waste) thus saving the step of

washing the paper prior to vermiconversion, and d) the vermicasts have a
very popular and ready market as enrichers of soil . The last of the advantage
stems not as much from the NPK-content of the vermicasts but from the
organics (particularly certain enzymes and harmones) secreted by the worms
with the casts - compounds which are believed to stimulate plant growth and
suppress pathogens ( Abbasi and Ramasamy, 1999b; Ismail, 1997; Abbasi
and Ramasamy, 2001).
In this part of the thesis, various studies conducted to vermicompost paper
waste effectively have been discussed. Chapter 8 elaborates the study
focused on screening the earthworm species best suitable for processing
paper waste. Four detritivorous - two epigeics and two anecics -species were
employed for the study. The study has been published in Environmental
Technology, 22, 679-685 (2001).
The above study indicated Lampito mauritii and Eudrilus.eugeniae to be the
most efficient producers of vermicasts, with L.maun'tii a shade above
E.eugeniae. As L.mauritii is an indigineous species whereas E.eugeniae is
exotic in the lndian context. L. maurifii was used for the study which focussed
on four aspects: (a) recovery of vermicasts in digesters fed with paper
blended with cowdung in 4:1, 5:1, and 6:l ratios (by weight) (b)
reproductionlmortality of earthworms in the reactors, (c) growth of earthworms
in terms of increase in zoomass, and d) the effect of digester volume on the
three aforementioned factors. This study has been published in the Indian
Journal of Chemical Technology, 9, 306-311 (2002) and is reproduced as
chapter 9.
As paper waste has negligible nutrients besides carbon, some nutrient rich
substrate need to be spiked in order to sustain earthworm populations.Studies
were conducted to estimate the minimum fraction of inexpensive nutrient
source such as cowdung that may be needed for this purpose. Also attempts
were made to improve the efficiency of the vermireactors in terms of vermicast
output per unit time and per unit digester volume. The study has been

published in Bioresource Technology, 79, 67-72 (2001) and is reproduced as
chapter 10.
In an attempt to obtain better vermicast output per unit reactor volume 'high
rate' verrnireactors were explored in which upto 12.5 times higher earhworm
density was maintained compared to the density of 7 worms per litre of
digester volume reported earlier as 'ideal'. These 'high rate' vermireactors
performed sustainably over significantly long period (6 month), producing 6.5
times more castings per unit digester volume than the 'low rate' reactors. This
study is due to be published in Indian Journal of Biotechnology and is
reproduced as chapter 11.
For vermicomposting, the cost of the vermireactor constitutes the major
input. In order to maximize benefit from such reactors, it is essential to
minimize the reactor volume for a given vermicast output. Hence
vermireactors with two different kinds of vermibeds were used to find out the
effect of reactor composition on the vermicast output. Chapter 12 presents the
details of this study due to be published in lndian Journal of Chemical
Technology.
In chapter 13, the performance of four species of earthworms - Eudrilus
eugeniae, Drawida willsi, Lampito mauritii and Perionyx excavatus - born and
grown in venireactors fed with paper waste was studied. This was compared
with the performance of the previous generation which had been raised to
adulthood on cowdung as principal feed before shifting it to verrnireactors
operating on cowdung - spiked paper waste. The study is due to be published
in Bioresource Technology.

References
Abbasi,S.A., Nipaney,P.C., and Ramasamy,E.V.,1992. Studies on multiphase
anaerobic digestion of Salvinia, Indian Joumal of Technology, 30, 483 - 490.
Abbasi,S.A., and Ramasamy,E.V., 1999a. Biotechnological methods of
pollution control, Onent Longmans (Universities Press India Ltd.), Hyderabad,
168 PP
Abbasi,S.A., and Ramasamy,E.V., 1999b. Anaerobic digestion of high solid
Wastes, In : Proc. Eighth National Symposium on Environment, IGCAR ,
Kalpakkam ,220 -221.
Abbasi,S.A., and Ramasamy,E.V., 2001. Solid waste management with
earthworms, Discovey Publishing House, New Delhi, 178 pages.
Datta,M., 1999. Integrated solid waste management, In: Datta,M., Parida,
B.P., ; Guha,B.K., and SreeKrishanan,T.R. (Eds). Industrial solid waste
Management and Landfiiiing practice. Narosa Publishing House, NewDelhi,
10-23.
lsmail,S.A.,1997. Vermicology -the biology of earthworms, Orient Longman,
Hyderabad , 92 pp.
Ramasamy,E.V., and Abbasi,S.A.,1999a. High solids anaerobic digestion
for the recovery of energy and manure from municipal solid waste (MSW),
In : Proc. Fourth World Congress on Recovey, Recycling and Reintegration,
Geneva , VI , 1- 6.
Ramasamy,E.V., and Abbasi.S.A.,1999b. Utilization of biowaste solids by
extracting volatile fatty acids with subsequent conversion to methane and
manure. The Journal of solid waste technology and mangement,USA,26,
133-1 39.
Rarnasamy,E.V. and Abbasi,S.A., 2000. High-solids anaerobic digestion for
the recovery of energy from municipal solid waste (MSW), Environmental
technology, 21, 345-349.

Eidwmew 7-, v*. n. " 67Md
08.IpUUk1001 Chapter 8
SCREENING OF FOUR SPECIES OF DETWKVOROUS
(HUMUS - FORMER) EARTHWORMS FOR SUSTAINABLE
VERMICOMPOSTING OF PAPER WASTE
Cmtn for PoUutbn Can4 and Energy Tectmabgy, Padichy Univenity, U~L
Pondldmy-a014,w
InlndLuddmhne,putkvlulyhthcthirdwa?d
bwamtedaobglafor~Mnat~bof
lnullldp.Ialtd~m;lilmeeffGTnindude*
uuembit~loprod~~mmW13.5Ldamctiar
pdprwMteproduodby~.nd~DfRCIl of w*tk buy & fmm I(am(a Eolbwcd ly
bd*pordhtmhblrrlbngWnho(hrtypddud
[MI. k a prt of ti- mthra,
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g u u a a a o f ~ P U d w M t e O t i W t b whlchd~uepmmtaihthbpnper. ~
RwlwlsvalWy
pi*duponMbythelidcofhwehd&Igicumml Rddr, dnnagodthb~Dpbnur1)ttbPpbkof
udhl$wmyb~*rbu~ofcmLoMaDl ~mybwmmy~qumtnimdplplwu((,b) It
pooutbm c+ddMswhrmlay~In'tyct 'dIfmpkmd~ttlu9qpropLlckrucrthanhdd
pmn*ntinthedwebphgmunms;andHbrwm~nto knlhddml(am,mdh~c)ttanh.ndlc
rc plla d MSW on tk mdde m between bdblhga (121 'unck.n'p.Pr(faamrqr*pplub&dwlthfmdwuk)
In~Inwu~luch~hunlvaciry~hslthm bPvinsthec*pd*&pprph*
authmwml;pprwmleb~~upudrton ~ ~ d ~ t h . ~ h v c a w r y p o p l l u
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vtlliablr*ailhlncdhhppr. cmlyfmnwry rotm~bomhNPK.ammtdtkhctut
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~ ~ h n t m n ~ a Q v c b p ~ y*tppn*-m9~ c t

EuUa Butt 1111 hu apbd thc polWllty of withcowdunguthlflad Mculmhdmthrnm
p p r m i l l l l d g c ~ 8 f e a i E a ~ k h w m ~frrmwhmalhdlvid~wmnndanlypi~fa
~
m,ud&imetdIlZl have fcundiiut
thaeaphmb. Iheraaorbrdwu*pa -5046
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hydml~ud~kmdthldudp Bothttmnpmb wntu.lk~M~dpbcadppr(uthey
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nibqlm-~ddl~thlwrmrdor&pwwdla laMhw.Lcrfor8weakspuaudud~with
~lvivehwkme,AmacnanlhdybyCccunti md
hW&dm 1131 hr mctd hih ad- M the
Chmwdiafoaumppard~Iudp~ Anedmhllmy
cwdung. AUpUnahmsr~wUut thlkedw
npatalinth*pparrpraamdy~b(hkmrftn
ovdrybg .t 105T b colubnt weight). Thc hcwom
d+hclltmhUCbjthl~uthDnudngarmpltpLvdvveh #olrabnpDmdrIivew~hlvn & &hq
numod, ud Wudlng d y pubwrd mvkw 110,141 dhairymaaWoffthlwomud~~~. The
Ldiclta that dudksdthc typdauGmihthi8 pper, ~nnarrhtllyr*rcdbovpnaahcrpvtida.
eqhdlq thl utllL.!km of pprr wua ViI Ahathbrp~tiathl~wemdricd(105.Olo8
vermlmmpoltiry hve not becn repad Lhu, fu.
-tmigr
A portion d th* m n, mighat ud then
momughly~wi(hW~lo+pn~themtnra
procbcmaLvdhthc~hthlagniemmer.
EIldfa~aI%rdr~ Kinba!3udPabnyrnmmUvrPenla
~cMt*d r epigda a hunuu feedm ai+,vom 18,141.
lMy typblly inhbit humwladen u p law of g u h
T ~ rpnhd C wu wu oven drki (10~~) lo m ~ nW+L t
hc ud rmnurrpik Thy have I hi*
msubbdwrndetumhethcuum~d~~
mnaincdinthe~crttngccrch. lhbfmuonn,
~~ d suh& ham the WII mc. d cdqn rreDwcd each
rcpmdvctbn ud 8 faQ nh d growth to ddtkcd than time, Tlnm, thl vam*mv& dab pmlcd hm
maochcrlpcdaduthwomr;~twobaacmJs ~~eDmcnimdadythelecdlothecdqn,Md
them~utillmrofh~,nunu~,~o(herfonmd a c l ~ t h l ~ d
agmkarkn P&,sthtydon'tbvlmvinlothlp4
The nsciaa, .I nm h duplhta, msr & with
thcvermlnmnr~mthemmdnotmnhlnldeepbad 7Sgoffrd~dpprwPh:cordunghI:l w/w
dd lhb hu the poanthl of mnhibuting tow& mvlq reo. AlterlSdtyrtheaur@md thl euulworm wen
m racbr volume, in iwn oonhhting lo hvounbL nwvedhrpuurrmahvnfmolquuaUhtion w* the
aommt&Pa1I1thacramE.~+udPmDmphu mtofthlmdoromknbwat~ IIMhin8fm
havebeenb*nivelydin~hqhwt !ninut~frah~nwsccaradwith~~the
th world 115-171 ud h w pmvcd lo k rfRdart convahn ~nucmptdthll5gkdmwhuipperudeowdung in
0: 0rgMk fed, spd.lly rmnw hlo vamiaa
51 W/W &,ud b)dthluthwomrrmovrdhamthe
Thc.ndolrmpim~rifii.~~Dmpidr~ ~ r u h ~ ~ v s l t h my , kmad i f wmrpnad ~ u e & ~ b u t b w u n b b e udthl20-~wNchthlrarconwmnuad.
~
kdendhu1n~uin~lodI61~ 7hybunmvinto
msrweigklmdrrlbodud Itwuwymyb
~ ' p n a w o m r r U q n n d ~ h 6 k e l o
the~nnilapmduculdwlngthenm Thcpmcmwvr
r r p r ~ ~ l S ~ ~ b t h c M * m l a n e r i n
cowdung wlth ppa: mrdung : &1 (wlw). lhb lgdwl
wufnauarrdbythlpmMtiyhtbyvlr(uedlhbf~~~l S h i R b ~ ~ ( ~ ~ c o w d ~ * . n ) W ~
t h l r p c k m y p n m m m ~ u d hmm ~ f daw a hu the urlhwmn grt an oppomnhy lo
'M. m ~ h m r w n o f ~ n * n m b t h rclirm&themdw& e
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pmmtIcudykoUBepprwlhcUafinu~~ I l k e n ~ i n ~ m u y a ~ ~ , ~ t
arbonuditvrpu&kltut (he L*tobu*ErYgadrmd vsmirrrmneuhcrchw~thlumr(,dwmmwith
P~mtght~lttuveaurlvedinthlfeedwehd whkh~nrtDnwrreshd.~uedbbthcaIiy
PMb*.
producslofwrmMr
rollbutRuhburmwsueMow;harritwuEdtht8 thin
Lyaofdlrvy bedrpvtc Eathem hthe vamlmdon
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whnr ha U hve been mndd - ud ib choice
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9al$rac81*dfIun(htkaomupwlth~la~0f
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rrpctkly. Inrchnwbr,alM'Jymdddt~d
dlaenQecbraclnaoducrd lhacalrmLm
~pldadbomthlcniiwa~~bythl8uthDn

diffedbyY%.Inakwothcr~thcduferrnni,of
Ub?orderof56%. &Itinagrtu+dtyol~thcou(put
dnrnubrbwMn2%ofladupupk.
AhnLmnhofapnlloBatwhichpointW 1. AUthclau~of~tahdbyw-Eudrilm
rrportbb.lnembnw,thprfnrmnaofrlltheraoa.
inhmdpmd~ofevthylhr lmpmvcd hiy, p
agmip,*mar~,~-,Ind Dram
Idldri,go*~nproduednilhv~nfed
s(rdlly. nlkblefkdedbomthebndlina~
rt.naoucpltwlth~@@ml).IhrbadUnahvcbm
wlth 6rl (dry wt : dry wt)
rarhmgovs.Ih4rpm
of papa wnk and
dn~nlainplhcWMlo~ucMiaac4tEx~1[181. 2 L&fflmdE.auF*WIltmoRQfficbntVmniUdt
M the 1M) dmb of four spe& wlth whW the p o d ~ a n ~ l h c o m S h * 0 ~ ~ - 5 2 %
r u c I v n w n r ~ l i x m m h M ; ~ ~ m @ i n dttufrdylh*-46%achievdbytheothcrtwo
wdghtmdpmdveco(bpring(TIMs2md 3). On an *
avmgz the Wvidulh of D .W, LmW, ud Pmmfw 3. A, UN avenge pnt.dukhmd Uf~ptn of the
hVelpmmto~~~mcLW&I~IlabkZ). ~ d i n t h t w y b - B ~ l h c i I
'ihc!ndiv!duJofEargnJa,wmhaviaatthc araet,md cmabmtgmwthudrrpmdudionwcrmdthh
have grown to a hue nvia mcir odgj~~ wagh BU~, tpl~mdlbwnadmynwhlhy,hthc vamkMon
h~,tlr~~dght@n~Ibythe lavrpda b studldbyuW(rUut Hlchnrmlnwtrmue
shnUutoachothcr,wldlhthc-~255*Z~
lauM&k
As indiakd h Tabk 3. E ~ g a ihve r been the Ihr~darrnrbn(usltmkbtnv~a)
ma rrpmductlrr, follow& by the next mst hclq ~ h v m c r ~ t b n o f tbmg.tum- h e
Lmiii The two Ughmwdght q&~ D.rmlLi md
PmamN haw mch produced aignifldy oullrr nudm
ofplprM~,~yhhmrofthcurvivrl
growm. ud d m n d &iency of UN anhw~m ofolfsprb\gs. It foW that if wp~k vermirrcton w bet tan in the mcmn, b) dsign of 'high-ne' dkgsskm which
upwiththfwspdc~ahldied inthbdthc rrrnora anaCh*ve~~nhdmmlcaMnbnpr
withEa~gmipudLmYrllii wOULdmtcdypmduam unlt voluec per day, ud cJ kmpm@n of luch
cuaperwomrbutvsuld~~gmnaewnnpidiy faWhthc-m~lMkCthead~edCMt
i~nring
~~~.
wtim t h ~ mpbrg the hw&g cuy uld cffi6cnt

1. htM1. h-hd rdid wutc muugemau. In: DWM, Puid., B.P., GuhL BX, ud Snc-T.R (Ma).
Indudrid olLI mutt Mmpml ond bm$3lUnp p&. N m Pubbhing Haw, NmDCUII. 1W3. (19P)).
2 ~bbui~~, ud ~ rmwmy~.~., Bwaarl ww fpdluh d, 0rbnt ~ ~ I Wwn)vadk U ~ aM~I a
Lid), H- 168 pp (1999).
3. ~ , u d ~ d V , k u c r p b i c ~ d ~ & ~ h : h . d l h N p l L n m l S ~ m ~
4.
IGCAR. Iwp.wum, 220 -214 1999).
Rwumy.rv..udwsA.,~w~~-bk~d~ud -fmmmun*ipl
wUwuhh(5m. h :Pmc.FaulkWaM~m~,~brgpnl~,GsraMMI-&(1999).
5. Rwuny,av.ndm.,.~imd-famerpavsrdargyhomqalid~llltr
m, Endrm. Tnjlnd, ll, W5(9.( MOO).
6. Abbrl~,NrpnY,P.C.,Md~y6VV~m~hr~~dSJPkdZInda].TW.,
50,M - 490A 1912).
7. R.rmumy.EV. ud AbbrdSh(1999). UtillP(bn of birma d& by umhg vduik htty & with ukequa
cunvmici~ lo u&m ud mmu 1. SoUd Waste Trchnd hhqe., USAS, IS139 (1939).
8. ImuilSA,V~-!hbicbgyofea1U1~arn0rimllalgnn, Hydabd,92pp(lB7l.
9. AbbriU.udR.muuny.~V.Sd~~~~Ih~,~RWlhhgI.(ou*.NmDelhi(in
PI)
10. ~ . ~ ~ . . ~ o f v e m d ~ mrmto.~.~kyqa~.-
~ ~ a u h prh ym t q ~ ~ ~ ~
Lib&#, W- 161(1999)
11. & I h K R . ~ d a & d p l p r m l l l ~ m d ~ t b mywrIlufad n y fasddmhgeuhwam,
B w T M . , H 105 - 107, (1993).
12 p M R C , ~ J w ~ , L L u d h U t o , S k@,S(,62-63.
. , V ~
(1995).
13. CKc&i,B.,udM8&d&m,GGG
n . z (1999).
~ s t d y ~ o f & p l u d p p ~ r m i l l Bw,M, ~ ,
14. lrmllSh~l)wcon(ributfcnofdhm~yh~wrmmdfatllltr.W~m~~
lnahla oiReMh h Sd Bblog. ud Bbt&nalogy, Thc Nm Co@,QwM.i (1998).
15. ~G,BnunlL,mdl(mkB.T.,Bnrkdamofphttnsiduaundahumidaophlcmdi~byEdtBw,~.
brl id. nipdm w, ma, (~195).
16. MUUY.U~~M,K~S,T~miAK,ud~,PN.C&udnprod~of~ ' a
arhwonnPdagrmaM mMwn0dbyEoodrrmai.k B~ad~f~Z&129-w2(1W7).
17. ~ , ~ m
s, Iwn, (1m.
d ~ & ~ r n a p h d D J.Zd., M d ~
18. Mbmft Ed, Vdai 80 (19m.

Indian Journal oichemical Technology
Vol. 9, July 2032, pp. 306.311
Chapter 9
Vermicomposting of paper waste with the anecic earthworm
Lampito mauritii Kinberg
S Gajalakshmi, E V Rarnasamy & S A Abbasi*
Ccnve for Pollurion Convol and Energy Technology, Pondicherry Universily, Kalapet Pondichcrry 605 014, India
Reccived 27 June 2001; revised rearved5 March 2W2; accepted I0 April 2W2
bog term prformnnce of 'vermireactorc' in whleh paper waste WM c o n v to ~ vermlutts by th lDsie
earthworm LMlPifo mauM Klnberg ha k n amcud Thc ltudy & fd on laur upecb: (a) mveq of
- Articles
vtrmlostr h dlgmtrn led with paper blended with awdung In 4:1, 51, and 6:l ndcd by wdpht), b)
mproductlodmortallty ofePrthworms In the mcton, (c) growth of mlhwamr In terms of kue In mmm, nd
(d) the en#c of Uukr volume on che h e plonwntloncd fmon nodim are a q u d to th work npaud
carlie2 where f w of epidc icd lllcdc mlhwom wen mend fw their e 6 d w d ~ ~~I&illt, h
pmwdq watc Mr. The st;& had Indicated L M pnd Evdrilvr eugebc Kinberg to be k moct efll&nt
produan of wmlpsEl, with L rnnurini a shade above E, runcbc. As L ma&i & lo lodlsnaui d e a w h
~.rugmiru la m uoUc h the lndh mnluf It ~~cms that & former my adapt better emi@caUy,'beaa & mon
raluent, than th lrtltr.
Used and tom or shredded paper ensuing from small
offices and households forms a substantial fraction of
municipal solid waste (MSW) in lndial,'. In several
institutions, paper waste is burnt off leading to air
pollution and unseemly sights of ash heaps. Apart
from this, such practices entail wastage of organic
carbon which might be put to good use'. The situation
in other third-world countries is no different', and
may perhaps be existing elsewhere too.
Earthworms ingest soil and various forms of
biomass to produce castings. Baring a few exceptions
the castings of most earthworm species are known to
contain harmones and enzymes which stimulate plant
growth and discourage pathogens. In several, though
not all, cases the castings also contain plant nutrients
nitrogen, phosphoms, and potassium (NPK) in a more
plant-available form than the parent matter. Lastly,
the castings an believed to be good 'soil
conditioners' as they improve water retention and
facilitate establishment of plant roots. For all these
reasons vermicasts arc favoured by fanners all over
the world, and find a ready market.
An extensive program of studies has been taken up
to develop basic and applied knowledge for using
earthworn in processing paper waste. In an earlier
sequence of six-month long trials, four species of
--
'For comspondcw: (B.mail: pmf-abbasi@vml.com: Far:
0413.655217)
earthworms-including two epigeics Eudrilus
eugeniae Kinberg and Perionyx excavalus Perrier, and
two anecics Drawido willsi Michaelsen and Lampito
muritii Kinberg were smned for their efficiency
and sustainability in producing castings from feed
consisting of 6:l (by weight) blends of paper waste
and cowdung. The uials revealed that L. mauritii and
E. eugeniae each produced significantly more castings
per unit feed and per unit reactor volume than
D. willsi or P. acavatu. Thus, it was decided to
subject L mauririi to further detailed investigation
vis-a-vis vermiconversion of paper waste. Besides
being the most efficient producer of vermicasts
amongst the four species tested, L mauritii has the
added advantage of being indigenous to 1ndiaSband is
widely distributed, especially in the Southern region7.
On the other hand, E, eugeniae is an exotic speciess
and is likely to be less resilient than L, mauritii.
Further, L mauritii was also found to be more
reproductive than the other two indigenous species
D. willsi and P. ercavatus. This attribute would
further enhance the efficiency of vermireactors tun on
L mauritii.
Study on the recovery of vermicasts in digesters
fed with paper blended with cowdung in 4:1,5:1, and
6:l ratios (by weight), reproductionlmortality of
earthworms, growth of earthworms in terms of
increase in zoomass in the reactors and the effect of
digester volume on three aforesaid factors has been
reported here.

Gajalakshmi era!.: Verrnicornposling of paper wastc with anecic canhworm Articles
Experimental Procedure These were run in the same manner as the two
reactors described above, but without removal of
Vermireacron
The vermireactors consisted of circular plastic
containers, volume 4 or 12 L, dia 24 or 46 cm, depth 9
offsprings. In all cases the number of offsprings
generated during each run were recorded,
or 30 cm. These were filled from bottom up with
successive layers of sawdust, river sand, and soil of
depths 1,2, and 4 cm respectively. In each reactor, 20
healthy, adult individuals of L mauritii were
introduced. These animals were randomly picked
from the cultures maintained by the authors with
cowdung as the feed. Each culture had more than 200
animals from where 20 individuals were randomly
picked for these experiments. The reactor bed was
kept at - 50% moisture by periodic sprinkling of
adequate quantities of water. The reactor feed
consisted of pieces of paper (as they occurred in the
waste taken from trash bins), after they were soaked
in water for a week, squeezed, and mixed with
cowdung. All quantities were adjusted so that the feed
mass reported in this paper represents dry weights
(taken after oven-drying at 105'C to constant weight).
The castings contained soil particles besides
vermidigested organic matter. In order to estimate the
mass of this entrained soil, a portion of the castings
was ovendried at 105'C to constant weight,
thoroughly mixed with a known quantity of water,
and kept for a while. The castings floated to the top
while the soil panicles settled at the bottom. The
casungs and the underlying water was separated from
the soil by first decantation of the castings and the
bulk of the liquid, and then filtering off the rest, The
castlngs and the liquid were ovendried to constant
weight. The soil was separately ovendried to a
constant weight. This enabled us to determine the
mass fraction of soil particles contained in the
castings each time. This fraction was subtracted from
the total mass of castings recovered each time. Thus,
the vermiconversion data presented here pertains to
conversion of only the feed to the castings, and
excludes the entrained soil.
All reactors were operated under identical settings
of temperature and ambient humidity. Duplicates
were run for all studies and were started with 75 g of
feed. Three types of feed were studied, comprising
Paper waste : cowdung in mass ratios of 4 : I, 5 : I,
and 6 : I. For each feed type six reactors were
operated. Of these rwo neclors, each of 3 L volume,
were run with L mauritii population maintained at its
Odginal 20 animals by periodically removing the
offsprings from the digesters. Of the other four
reactors, two were of 3 L capacity and two of 12 L.
Results and Discussion
Table I presents fortnightly recovery of vermicasts,
in terms of percentage of feed mass, from all the
reactors over seven months. To provide an indication
for the reproducibility of the recovery data, the
findings of the duplicate Reactors I & 11 are given for
each of the three feed types studied. It may be seen
that in one case (first run, 5 : 1 :: paper : cowdung
feed), the recovery in the duplicates disagreed to the
extent of 13%. In three other instances (fifth and
eleventh runs, 4 : 1 :: paper : cowdung feed, and
eleventh run, 6 : 1 :: paper : cowdung feed), the
duplicates disagreed to the extent of 7.9%. In all other
instances the duplicates were in closer agreement
which, considering the heterogeneous nature of the
reactor contents, may be deemed very good. For the
sake of brevity, only the averages of the duplicates are
given for other reactors in Table I.
The trends of vermicast recovery as a function of
the age of the reactor followed a consistent pattern in
case of all the 18 reactors (Fig. 1). There was a slow
but steady rise in vermiconversion from the beginning
uptil the fifth run. Thereafter, a plateau was reached
and was maintained for over four-and-a-half months.
This indicates that the uuthworms, which had been
raised in cowdung-fed reactors before they were
transferred to the experimental reactors, twk time to
adapt to the paper-rich feed and, after the initial lag
phase, have achieved a consistent rate of vermicast
output. The fact that identical plateaux have occurred
in reactors where earthworm population was
controlled to the initial number, as well as in reactors
where no such control was exercised, indicates that
the contribution of juveniles in utilization of feed has
not reached perceptible levels in the latter type of
reactors. It is expected that as the juveniles approach
adullhood they would begin consuming substantial
mass of the feed, thereby pushing the vermicast
output above the plateau. This may continue till the
death of the 'parent' worms may cause a temporary
lowering of output.
Table I also reveals that the overall average
vermicast ncovety in digesters containing
increasingly higher fraction of paper is not
significantly different from each other. Further,
vermiconversion in digesters of 12 L volume

Table I-Recovery of vermicasrr (8) as a function of timc
R- 4:1: : p.pa : cowdung 5:l: :paper: cowdung - 6:l::ppm:cowdung
(crh of 15 Rerror Rsrcor Avu- RuFtors RcacM Rescror Reactor Avcr- Reaft- Resctors Reactor Reactor Aver Rut- R-OR
d.yr) I n .ge m&lv V&VI I n age maw V&VI I n qe IB&IV V&VI

Gqialakshmi el 01.: Vcrmicompost~ng of paper waste with anccic emworm
Fig. I-Recovery 01 vemicasts (9. of feed mass) with the feeds
(a) papr : cowdung :: 4:1 (b) papr:cowdung :. S:l (c) paper :
cowdung :: 6:1 -0- Conmlled population. 31 * Unconlmlled
population, 3L -A- Unconmllcd population, IZL
Fig. 3-Net incm in unhwonn zoomass m Contmllcd
Wulalion, 3L o Uncontmllcd populat~on, 3L I Unconuollcd
Population, 12L
Articles
Fig. 2-Worm zoomass increase in seven months
(a) paper:cowdung ::4 : I (b) paper:cowdung :: 5 : 1 (c) papr :
cowdung :: 6 : I -0- Con!mlled population, 31 -L Unconmlled
population, 3 L -A- Uncontrolled population. 12 L
(Reactors V & VI) is only about 4-596 more than in
3 L digesters (Reactors I - IV). It follows that (a) 6 :
1:: paper : cowdung blends are nearly as acceptable to
L mauritii as 'blends with higher proportion of
cowdung, and (b) a Cfold increase in reactor volume
does not significantly enhance the earthworm activity
vis-a-vis production of vermicasts. The number of
juveniles produced in the various reactors was close
to 20 (Table 2) and no pattern can be discerned to say
that reduction in the cowdung fraction of the feed, or
an increase in reactor volume, facilitated reproduction
of esrthworms.
The mass of 'parent' worms increased almost
linearly with time and grcw by over %fold during the
7-month operation in all the reactors (Fig. 2). As it
was revealed by Fig. 3, no trend can be discerned in
this aspect too, to positively correlate increase in

Table 2-Iilonbn of dr- found in thc react- ucb fcmmight
R- 4:1::-:cowbmg
(dd Rsra RcPa Am-
15.3.~) 1 u
WW Rcrur
u t s ~ V&VI I .-
5:1::p.pcr:covdong
Rsta Am- Runas Runm Rucra
n marv vavr I
.nry .v-vz
6:l: :p.pa:anudung
Rercmr Aver- RcvM R-
n age ruaw vav~
a- avcnbe

Gajallkrhmi er a!.: Vcrmicomposting of paper wasu with anccic eanhworm Articles
zoomass with paperlcowdung fractions in the feed.
presencelabsence of juveniles, or digester volume.
The studies reveal that a 6 : 1 : : paper : cowdung
feed in 3 L digesters, each operated with 20 adult
individuals of L. mauririi results in as good and as
sustainable vermicast recovery as the more nutrient-
rich feeds, and more spacious digesters employed in
the present investigation.
Earlier ~utt~ has explored the possibility of using
paper mill sludge as a feed for the lob worm
Lvmbricus rerresrris, and Elvira er a[' have found
that addition of Eisenia nndrei to paper mill sludge
speeds up the process of hydrolysis and stabilization
of the sludge. Both these reports emphasize that
unless the sludges are augmented with a nitrogen-rich
additive, the worms do not grow well or survive for
long. ~osal' and Elvira cr a1.'1,r2 have also explored
possibilities of using earthworms to hasten the
stabilization of sludges coming from paper mill
wastewater treatment systems. These studies indicate
that the sludge stabilization is helped by the presence
of earthworms and addition of sewage sludge, pig
manure, or poultry droppings leads to higher rate of
earthworm growth. But in all situations there is
sipn~ficant and persistent eanhworm mortality.
A more recent study by Ceccanti and ~asciandro''
has reached similar conclusions. Recently published
reviews"," indicate that studies of the type described
in th~s paper emphasising on the utilization of paper
haste vla verm~composting, have not been reported so
Far.
Acknowledgement
The authors thank the All India Council for
Technical Education, Government of India, New
Delhi, for financial support.
References
I Abbasi S A & Ramasamy E V, Biorechnoiogica! Merhodr of
Pollurron Conlro! (Oricnt Longman, Universities Press India
Ltd.. Hydenbad). 1999. 168.
2 Gajalakshmi S. Ramasamy E V & Abbasi S A, Environ
Technol. 22 (2001) 679.
3 Elvira C. Dominguez J, Sampedro L & Mato S. Bimycle. 36
(1995)62.
4 Abbari S A & Ramasamy E V. Soird Wara Managemmr
with Ennhworn (Dirovcri publish in^ House. Ncw Dethil.
2001. 178.
5 Ashok Kumar C, Sroa of rhe An Repon on Vemuculrun m
india (Council for Advancemen~of Pwples Action ud Rural
Technology (CAPART), New hihi). 1994,60.
6 knapati B K. Proc $ rk Blogar Slurry Urilisation
(Conronium on Rural Technology (CORT), New
Dethi),1993. 57.
7 lsmail S A. Ramakrishnan C & Angu M M, Pmc Indian
AcadScl, (Anim Sci), 99 (1990) 73.
8 Reinecke A J & Viljocn S A. Pro J Sod Biol, 29 (1) (1993)
70 -,,
9 Bull K R. Bioresource Technol. 44 11993) 105.
10 Rosa Jean. Pepel. 55 (6) (1994) 22.
I I Elvim C. Goicachca M. Sampcdm L, Malo S & Nogales R.
Bionsourct Technol. 5712) (1996) 173.
I2 Elvim C. Sampedm L & Dominguez I. Soil Biol Bimkm. 29
(1997) 759.
13 Ceccanti B & Masciandro G. Brocycb, 40 (1999) 71.
I4 lsmaii S A, Ilu cwnbnion of soilfauna espcially he eanhworn
lo soil fertiliry, lnsutuu of Rcscareh in Soil Biology
and Biotshnology, 'he New College. Chcnnai (1998).
IS Szezcck M M, I Phyropathoi.Phyropatho1ogLche Lrschrii.
47 (1999) 155

Chapter 10
Bioresoum Tshnolog) 79 (2WIt 67-72
Towards maximising output from vermireactors fed with cowdung
spiked paper waste
S. Gajalakshmi, E.V. Ramasamy, S.A. Abbasi '
Centrt. bl P,~llu~!on (irniiol orid &t>rigi Tfrhnoiql. Pondtclicrr) Uflsrrr!!). Kuluper. Pund8rhrri) - 605 014 Inb
Rece~vcd 21 Octokr 2WO. ra'elved In rev~wd form 27 Novcmbcr 2000: sccepled 4 Decnnbcr 2WO
Papcr waste, splked wlth varytng proportions of cowdung, was vermlcomposted in 'low-rate'and 'hlgh.rate' reactors. The former
tjpe of reactors had edrlhworm populattons and fwd loading rates simllar to ones recommended by prevlous workers. The 'h~gh.
rate' reactors were operated u'lth 12.5 tlmes higher earthworm densities and feed loading rates. All the reacron were studied for six
months to aswss the vermlcasl output. surv~vab~l~ty, growth and reproduction of the earthworms - hence the sustainability of the
reactors - for long.term, continuous operat~on The sludles revealed the viablllty of the h~gh-rate vermtreactor concept. The highrate
reactors cons~stenlly produced over 6 5 times more casting., per unit dlgesor volume with no adverse erect on the earthworm
populal~on, as reflected by (a) absence of moridllty. (b) consistent growth in worm zoomass, and (c) normal rate of reproduction.
The studlcs also revedled that an lncreaw In Ihc cowdung fractlon In the feed from 14.3%~ to 20% (41 paper:cowdung blends to 6:l
hlendsl had l~tlle pos~tive Impact on the vermlcast output or earthworm health. Thts lndlcared that splking of paper fwd with -14%
ioudung, or perhaps an even smdllcr rract~on, might k adequate to support eanhworms In the paper4ed vermircacton. O 2W1
Elwvler Science Ltd All rights reserved
hi,h~iuidi Vcrm~composllng. Eudr>lur

iver sand, and soil of depths I, 2, and 4 cm.
respectively. In each reactor, 20 healthy and adult ani-
mals of the species E eugeniae were introduced. This
level of animal density was set by us as ~t had been
earlier recommended as ideal for vermireactors by other
workers (Ashok Kumar, 1994; Dash and Senapati. 1986;
Ismail, 1997). The animals were drawn from the cultures
maintained by the authors with cowdung as the feed.
Each culture had more than 200 anlrnals from which 20
lnd~viduals were randomly picked for these experiments.
The average moisture content of the vermireactors was
maintained at 45i I% by mon~toring the moisture
content at diRerent he~ghts of the reactors every week
and sprinkling the required quantities of water. Usually
the top one-third of the reactors had 29 f 1% moisture,
the middle one-third 45 i I%, and the bottom one.th~rd
61 i 1%. All quantities were adjusted so that the feed
and the casting mass reported in this paper represent dry
weights (taken after oven.drying at 105'C to constant
weight). The earthworm biomass is reported as live
Txble I
Recovery of vcrmlcasl>ngs wlth puper:cowdung 4.1 as feed ~n low rate d~gestcrr
Uiiys We~ght of the Castings generated as peren1 of mg castings I-I mg castings worm- mg castings
castings (gl iced lnpul in each run (10 days1 id~gens volume) d-' (g-) of fed d" worm- d-'
10 32.5 43 3 1083 I 22 162 5
Kaover) of vemlcastlngs with papr.cawdung 5.1 as iced ~n low rate dlgrste~
nays Weigh1 of the Castings generated as Frren! of rng castlngs I-' mg csstlngs worm-I mg castings
castings (g) fed Input In each run (I0 days) (dlpstcr volume) d-I g-I of feed d-' worm- d-I

,"",. .
Recovery ai vermlcastlngs with pagcr:cowdung 6 I as feed in low rate digerarr
Days Welphl or the Cartlnes pncrated as gcrcenl or mg cartlngs I-' mg cartlngs worm.' mg carting,
carlings (gl reed mpul In each run 110 days) ldigcrlei volume) d.' (g") of feed d-' worn-' d
-- -
10 307 40.9 1023 3 2.0 153.5
20 330 44 IIW 2.2 165
ase~ght, taken after rins~ng adherin2 mater~al OK the
worms and blott~ng them dry. The castings were carefully
sieved to separate other partrcles. A portion of the
castings was then weighed and thoroughly washed with
water to separate the small soil particles contained in the
castings from the organic matter. The separated soil was
oven dried (lOS°C) to constant weight. This enabled
determination of the mass fract~on of soil part~cles
contamed In the castings when required. This fraction
aas subtracted from the total mass of the recovered
castings. Thus, the bermiconvers~on data presented here
pertains to conversion of only the feed to the castings.
and excludes the entrained soil.
The reactors. all run in dupltcate, were started with
75 g of feed comprising of paper waste: cowdung at
4.1, 5.1 and 6:l ratios (wlw, dry weight). Once in every
10 days, the castings and the earthworms were re.
moved and placed in separate containers Tor quantification
while the rest of the reactor contents were
discarded. Within a few minutes, fresh reactors were
restarted w~th everything else the same as at the start
except that from the earthwons removed from the
prev~ous run, the juveniles, if any generated, were
separated and the 20 worms, with which the reactors
were started, were weighed and reintroduced.
2 2 High-rafe uermireocrors
These were operated and monitored in exactly the
same fashion as the low-rate reactors except that the
earthworm populations in these reactors were maintained
at 250 animald3 I and the feed loading rate was
950 gin each 10 day run. Thus, the an~mal densities and
1 2 3 1 5 8
M h a
a) Mfspong w ded each mmm, number
Fig I Numb orollaprlng gcneratcd and incnav ~n the earthworm
twinass each month in low.ns reaston

5 Gu~~/~~i;sliii~~ ri nl I Biiirrtaurct Tecliti

,".... .
Rrcnvery or vcrmicssllngr ulth papr:cowdung 5 I as feed ~n high rate d!gciterr
Dry6 Weight of the Casungr generated as pmnt of mg casllngr 1-I mg castlngs wornl- mg cartingr
callings (61 feed Input in each run (10 days) ldi$erlei volumcl d - ig') oi fed d- worn-' d-I
10 250 5 26 4 8350 0 l l IW
20 254.1 26 7 8470 0 I1 102
30 257 3 27 l 8576.7 0.11 103
40 260 5 27.4 8683.3 0.11 104
50 2644 27 8 8813 3 0 11 106
60 277 7 29 2 9256 7 0.12 111
70 2804 29 5 9346.7 0 12 112
80 282 6 29 7 9420 0 12 113
90 282.9 29 8 9430 0 12 113
iOil 262 8 27 7 8760 0.11 105
110 261.5 27 5 87167 011 105
120 291 3 30.7 9710 0 12 117
130 289 1 30 4 9636 7 0.12 116
140 297.8 31.4 9926 7 0 13 119
150 2866 30.2 9553 3 0.12 115
160 258 6 27.2 8620 0.11 103
110 2744 28 9 91467 0.12 110
I80 268 2 28.2 8940 0.11 107
Average 272.3 28 7 9057 4 0.12 109
Kerovery or vermicas~~ngi wlth p~per.cowdung 6 I as feed In high rate dtgcrleri
Day, Weight of thr Casllngs gcneralcd a9 prsni oi mg carllngr 1-I mg castings worm- mg casting9
castings (g) iced input ~n each run (10 days) (dlgcstcr volume) d-I (g )of red d-' worm-' d-I
10 239.9 25.3 7996.7 0 10 96
211 234 8 24.7 7826 7 0 10 94
10
40
50
60
70
80
90
1 W
I lo
1211
130
140
I50
I60
170
I 80
Average -
The following conclusions emerge.
(i) Vermicast recovery per unit digester volume was as
much as over 6.5 times better in high.rate digesters. As
earthworms contribute little to the cost inputs, this
finding indicates that vermireactors can be run with
much higher earthworm density than has been rmm-
mended by others earlier.
(ii) All the reactors performed sustainably; there was
no mortality even In the densely populated high.rate
digesters over the course of the experiment.
0.1 1
0.10
Oll
(iii) In low-rate vermireactors, increase in the pro.
portion of cowdung in the feed from 14.3% to 20% had
no significant effect on the vermicast output (Tables 1-3)
nor on the number of ofspring produced (Fig. ](a)). It
did not effect the weight gain by the worms either (Fig.
I(b)). In the high-rate vemreactors, the vermicast
output in reactors with 16.7% and 14.3% cowdung
(Tables 6 and 7) was less to the extent of 4.8% and 9.2%,
respectively compared to the vemicast output of reac-
tors with 20% cowdung (Table 5). The number of worm

1 2 3 4 5 1
Months
a) Oiisprlng gneraIa0 each months, number
b) Increw In w m ma8s each month, g
ELI4 I pqer cowdung 5 1 paper cowdung546 I paper cowdwg
TIF 2 h'umhcr ofobprmg eclteralcd and lncrcasc m the earthworm
?oon,ass crch )month in high.rale reaclors.
orspring produced were correspondingly less to the extent
of 13.8'Y~ and 19.3'X> (Fig. i(a)). However, there was
no stgnificant d~ference, or even clear trend. in terms of
net lncrease 111 the worm zoomass (Fig. 2(b)J. In sum.
mary, the proportion of cowdung does seem to influence
the performance of paper-fed high-rate \ermireactors
but the impact is not so strong as to significantly effect
the economics of the process. This finding is meaningful
because cowdung, though inexpensive, is not as easily
available a commodity as paper waste, and a 6% saving
In cowdung - in reactors fed with 6:l paper:cowdung
blends compared to reactors fed with 4: 1 blends - trades
UR favourably with lo0/" less vermicast output in the
hrmer.
(I\') Even though the vermicast output per unit di.
&ester volume was 6.5 times higher in the high-rate
vermtreactors compared to their 1ow.rate counterparts,
there IS a substantially great scope for further increasing
the efficiency of high.rate reactors. This is reflected by
the fact that the vermicast output per ~t'orni was about
half in reactors with higher earthworm density. The
number of offspring produced in high.rate reactors was
-0.4 per adult worm compared to I per adult worm in
low-rate reactors. The net increase in worm zoomass
over a six-month period was only -60% in h~gh.rate
reactors compared to -250%) in low.rate reactors. Further,
only -22% of the feed was util~zed per week in
more populous reactors compared to the -26% of the
feed utilized per week In less populous ones. All these
observations indlcate that the full potential of each
worm to produce vermicasts was not being realized in
the high-rate reactors even though the worm population
was sustainable. A possible limitation may be due to the
surface area of the vermireactors: E eugenioe take the
feed from the surface of the reactors and deposit ver.
micast, too, on the surface. By increas~ng the surface
area: digester volume ratio it might be possible to in.
crease vermicast output per worm in the high-rate vermireactors.
This may also have beneficial effect on the
growth in worm zoomass and on the number of off.
springs produced by the ancmals.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank All lndia Council for Technical
Educat~on, New Delhi, for financial support.
Ashok Kurnar. C. 1994 Stale 01 the An Repon on Yermlculturc ~n
India. Councjl for Advancement 01 Pcople's Acl~on and Rural
Technology ICAPARTI New Dclh~, p 60
Dash. M C , Senapatl, B K.. 1986. Verm~lschnology, an opt~on lor
organ~c uarlc managcmcnl in India. In. Dash, M.C . Senapati.
B.K. Mlshra. PC (Ed3 I, Prmedlng of National Scmlnar on
Organic Wasie Ut~luation by Vcrmeomposling. Rrt B Verms
and Vermicompoitlng, pp 151- 172
Gajalakrhm~. S. Ramaiam). EV, Abbasi. S.A.. 2W Screening or
lour spwo of detritivorous lhumur - lormer) carlhworms lor
surta~nable vcrmic~mport~ng olpapr waste Environ. Tcchnol.. In
press
Irrnol. S A. (Ed ), 1997 Vcrmicology - the Biology or Earthworm,.
Orient Longman, Hydcrabad, pp. 92.
Rcinske, A.J.. Vlljoen. S.A.. Saayman, R J., 1992. The su~lahilily or
Evdrilu~ cupmior. Prnonyr cxcawrur and Brmio Qfiiili iOllgo.
chacta) lor vcrmlcompostmg In Southern Alrisn In lerms ofthelr
temprsturc requtrements. Soil Btcchrm 24. 1295 1107

Chapter 11
High-rate vermicomposting systems for recycling paper waste
Abstract
S.Gajalakshrni and S.A. Abbasi
Centre for pollution control & Energy Technology
Pondicherry University , Kalapet ,Pondicherry-605014
Composted paper waste was vermicomposted with Eudrilus eugeniae Kinberg in
reactors with much higher earthworm densities (62.5-162.5 animals per litre of
reactor volume) than used in conventional vermireactors (7 animals I").
Continuous operation of these 'high-rate' vermireactors for significantly long
periods (7 months) resulted in consistently high vermicast output -72% to 81%
of the feed being turned to vermicasts in reactors of different earthworm densities
- with very little animal mortality (

carbon , and must be spiked with some nutrient rich substrate in order to sustain
earthworm populations, studies were conducted to estimate the minimum fraction
of inexpensive nutrient source such as cowdung that may be needed for this
purpose (Gajalakshmi et al 2001 b). It is by now well-established (Abbasi and
Nipaney 1993, Ramasamy et al2000, Tchobanoglous 1999) that reactor size is
the biggest factor controlling the economics of reactors performing composting 1
vermicomposting as these processes involve little input of energy or expensive
reactants. In an attempt to obtain better vermicast output per unit reactor volume
we (Gajalakshmi et al 2001b) had explored 'high rate' vermireactors in which
12.5 times higher earhworm density was maintained compared to the density of 7
worms per litre of digester volume reported earlier as 'ideal' (Kumar 1994, Dash
and Senapati, 1986 ).These 'high rate' vermireactors performed sustainably over
significantly long period (6 month), producing 6.5 times more castings per unit
digester volume than the 'low rate' reactors. The high animal density didn't
appear to have adversely effected the animal population as reflected by growth in
zoomass , reproduction, and absence of mortality.
In order to further strengthen the concept of 'high rate' vermireactors and to
assess the limits upto which earthworm densities can be increased in such
reactors without loss of sustainability of the animal population, we have
conducted studies in which upto 650 animals per 4 litre reactor volume (162.511)
were employed for the vermiconversion of precomposted paper waste. The
details are presented.
2. Methods
2. I The feed: cornposted paper
Paper waste was set for composting by arranging - Irn high heaps of
successive, 10 cm and 5 cm thick layers of shredded paper and cowdung. The
heap was topped with a thin layer of soil. The heaps were kept moist and the
temperature of their contents was monitored with probes. After the initial setting
of the heaps, the temperature of the contents would slowly (3-4 days) rise to

55' C and then begun to fall. At that stage we would thoroughly mix the contents
and cover the heaps with plastic sheets. The mixing, and the accompanying
aeration, would again stimulate bacterial action, lifting the temperature of the
contents to -55 'c. This sequence was repeated at -6 day intervals. Within a
month the contents were turned into fine, uniform, compost.
2.2 Vermireactors
Sets of duplicate vermireactors were prepared and operated in essentially the
same manner as detailed earlier ( Gajalakshmi et al 2001b) except that high
earthworm densities-62.5. 112.5,and 162.5 animals per litre of reactor volume
were maintained. The quantification of vermicast output , worm zoomass, and
reproduction was also essentially done as described earlier (Gajalakshmi et al
2001a,b). All quantifies are reported as mass obtained after oven drying the
substance at 105'~ to constant weight. Only worm zoomass represents wet
weight obtained after rinsing the worms thoroughly with water and blotting them
dry.
3. Results and discussion
The vermicast recovery as a function of time, feed input, and output per worm,
per litre of digester volume, per day from reactors with earthworm densities 62.5
f1 ,112.5 1" and 162.5 1" are presented in Tables 1,2 and 3 respectively.
In all but a few instances output of duplicate reactors agrees to within 10%.
Considering the heterogeneity of the reactor contents, this level of reproducibility
may be deemed as good.
It may be seen that reactor efficiency as reflected in conversion of feed to
vermicast increases from 59.2% to 81.2% when the animal density is increased
from 62.5 worms 1" to 162.5 worms I". Considering that earthworms are
available in nature, and can be easily cultured with little cost inputs, this finding is
significant; a 22% increase in reactor efficiency has occurred merely by increase
in worm density. Further the resulting crowding of earthworms does not seem to

Table 1 Vermicast output in reactors with 250 worms (62.5 worms per litre )
Days
10
20
210
Average
Cast weight(g)
498.8k1.8
552.9k1 .I
606.1i2,O
562.8
% recovery
52.5
58.2
63.8
59.2
mgl-'worm"
49.9
55.3
60.6
56.3

Table 2 Vermicast output in reactors with 450 worms (1 12.5 worms per litre :
Days 1 Cast weight(g) I % recovery j mgl%"rm.'
Average 683.2 71.9 38.0

Table 3 Vermicast output in reactors with 650 worms (162.5 worms per litre )
Days Cast weight(g)
658.4i2.1
Averaae 771.2
% recovery
69.3
I I I
81.2
--
mgl"worm"
25.3
29.7

have caused any significant mortality. Rather, the vermicast output has continued
to rise (Figure 1) in all the reactors, as reflected from the statistical trend lines
drawn using the software SMART (Arya and Abbasi, 2001 ). The slopes of the
three trend lines (Figure 1) are very similar, indicating that the rate in the rise of
vermicast output with time isn't also adversely effected by crowding.
Plots of vermicast output, offspring generated, and increase in the parent's
zoomass per worm as a function of worm density are presented in Figure 2. The
curves indicate that the output per worm goes down from 56.3 mg to 29.7 mg in
corresponding vermireactors. The net increase in worm zoomass is more or less
same (Table4) whereas the total number of offspring generated (Tables) is lesser
in reactors of progressively higher animal densities.
All-in-all, the results indicate that reactor efficiency goes up as earthworm
density is increased but does not do so in proportion to the increase in density.
This may be due to limitations imposed on substrate (feed) utilization of
earthworm by the reactor geometry. E. eugeniae are surface-dwelling
earthworms with shallow borrows. Their feeding and casting activities
predominantly occur on or just below the reactor surface. The deeper portions of
the reactors are unutilized. Hence, it is possible that reactors with larger surface
to volume ratios may provide better opportunity for the E. eugeniae activity,
consequently greater vermicast output per worm .
The C:N ratio of the compost, determined according to the standard method
(APHA 1998), was 21.9 k 0.7 (eight samples). These results indicate mild
improvement in the fraction of nitrogen during the process of vemiconversion of
the paper compost.
Acknowledgement
The authors thank the All India Council for Technical Education for the financial
support.

62.5 1125
Worm density
Figure 1 Vermicast output, zoomass gained, number of offspring
produced as a function of worm density

40k-~---~ , , , , , , -.----r, , #-,
0 I0 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210
Days
Figure 2 Vermicast output (as O/O of feed mass) in (a) reactors with 62.5
worms per litre (b) reactors with 112.5 worms per litre Q reactors with 162.5
worms per litre. The thin straight lines represent the trend

I
Table 4 Increase in worm zoomass, g,during seven months
Months
I-- Initial
I Zoornass ,g, in reactors containing worms
1 Net increase I 88.7 82.1 84.2

Table 5 Number of offspring generated in seven months
r- 1 Number of offspring generated in reactors containing worms I
Months

References
Abbasi, S .A,, and Nipaney, P.C., 1993. Modelling and Simulation of Biogas
Systems Economics, Ashish Publishing House, New Delhi; pp 359.
American Public Health Association (cited as APHA ).,1998. Standard methods
for the examination of water and wastewater. Clesceri ,LS., Greenberg , A .E.,
and Andrew D.E. (Eds.) 2oth edition.
Arya, D.S, and Abbasi, S. A,, 2001. SMART: A new software package for
environmental trend analysis. Journal of the Institution of Public Health
Engineers, India. 2001,40-51.
Dash, M.C., and Senapati ,B.K., 1986. Vermitechnology , an option for organic
waste management in India. In: Dash,M.C., Senapati, B.K.,Mishra,P.C.(Eds.),
Proceedings of National Seminar on organic waste utilization by
vennicomposting. Part B: Verms and Vermicomposting, pp 157-1 72.
Gajalakshmi, S., Ramasamy, E.V., and Abbasi, S.A. 2001a. Screening of four
species of detritivorous (humus former) earthworms for sustainable
vermicomposting of paper waste. Environmental Technology. 22, 679-685.
Gajalakshmi, S., Ramasamy, E.V., and Abbasi, S.A. 2001 b. Towards maximising
output from vermireactors fed with cowdung spiked paper waste. Bioresource
Technology. 79 67-72.
Kumar,C.A., 1994. State of the art report on vermiculture in India, Council for
advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology (CAPART). New Delhi,
PP 60.
Ramasamy, E.V., Shabudeen, A,, and Nipaney, P.C., 2000. In: Khan F.I., and
Abbasi S.A., (Eds.) Computer-aided Environmental Management, Discovery
Publishing House, New Delhi; pp 358.
Tchobanoglous, G., Burton, F.L.,1999. Wastewater engineering treatment,
disposal and reuse. Tata Mc.Graw Hill Publishing Company Limited. New Delhi,
pp 1334.

Chapter 12
Effect of reactor composition on the vermicast ouput in
vermireactors fed with composted municipal solid waste*
Introduction
S.Gajalakshrni and S.A.Abbasi
Centre for Pollution Control & Energy Technology
Pondicherry University, Pondicherry 605014
002685
Vermireactors, which are essentially tanks in which earthworms are made to feed
upon animal manure and I or other biodegradable solid wastes, do not require
continuous inputs of other forms of energy for their operation. As such, the cost
of the tanks constitutes the major component of cost input in a vermireactor. In
order to maximise benefit from such reactors, it is essential to minimize the
reactor volume for a given vermicast output (Gajalakshmi et al, 2001a). The
present study was conducted with this end in view.
Earlier studies on the performance of 'low rate' (reactors operated with - 7
animals per litre digester volume similar to ones recommended by previous
workers) and 'high rate' ((reactors operated with 12.5 times higher earthworm
densities and feed loading rates) reactors revealed the viability of high rate
reactors ( Gajalakshmi et al 2001 a,b ). By increasing the earthworm density for a
given digester volume the venicast output enhanced , thereby proving to be
economically feasible. The present study was conducted to comprehend the
effect of reactor composition on the venicast output.
Pre-print of the paper due to be published in Indian Journal of Chemical

Methods
Vermireactors with two kinds of vermibeds - reactors with conventional vermibed
and reactors with modified vermibed -were operated.
Reactors with conventional vermibed
Circular, 4 1 plastic containers were filled from bottom up with successive layers
of sawdust, river sand and soil of 1,2 and 4 cm respectively.
Reactors with modified vermibed
The vermibed in these reactors consisted of a layer of moist cloth, thereby
lending more reactor volume.
Both the types of reactor were operated in two modes: low and high rate. The
low rate reactors consisted of 20 worms and 759 (dry weight) of the feed,
whereas the high rate reactors were operated with 12.5 times more earthworm
density and feed loading rates. ( Gajalakshmi et al 2001 a, b ).
The reactors were run in duplicate. Once in every 10 days, the castings and the
earthworms were removed, and quantified. The earthworms were reintroduced
and the juveniles, if any generated, were separated. The earthworm biomass is
reported as live weight, taken after rinsing and blotting them dry. The castings
were carefully sieved to separate other particles. A portion of the castings was
then weighed and thoroughly washed with water to separate the small soil
particles contained in the castings from the organic matter. The separated soil
was ovendried (105' C) to constant weight . This enabled determination of the
mass fraction of soil particles contained in the castings when required. This
fraction was subtracted from the total mass of the recovered castings. Thus the
vermiconversion data presented here pertains to conversion of only the feed to
the castings, and excludes the entrained soil.
The feed was prepared by composting the biodegradable portion of the
municipal solid. The composting was done as per a process earlier standardized
in this laboratory. It consisted of setting up successive layers, 10 cm and 5 cm

thick respectively, of MSW and cowdung slurry in 50 1 wooden boxes. The slurry
was drawn from the effluent sump of a cowdung-fed biogas digester. The
organic solids were topped with a 1 cm layer of garden soil. The entire contents
were sprinkled with adequate water to generate average moisture content of -
50% and were covered with cardboard and thick black plastic sheets. The
temperature of the reactor contents was monitored with digital probes (accuracy
kO.l°C). After the Initial setting, the compost boxes were left undisturbed as the
aerobic process of composting started and gradually lifted the temperature of the
reactor contents from the initial - 3I0C to 55-60°C. When the temperature began
to fall, the plastic covers were removed and the contents thoroughly mixed. The
covers were then replaced and the boxes left once again to continue the
composting. In this manner the leaf litter was turned into sludge-like compost in
- 5 weeks.
Results and discussion
The performance of the low rate vermireactors is summarized in Table 1 and in
terms of increase in worm zoomass and number of offspring produced in Figure
1. The performance of high rate vermireactors is given in Table 2. Figure 2 briefs
the reproductive and growth rate of these reactors.
1. All the reactors performed sustainably as evident from the vermicast output
and healthy earthworms ( with considerable increase in worm zoomass and
number of offspring produced ).
2. The vermicast recovery per unit digester volume was 3% more in reactors
with modified vermibed in the low rate reactors and 6.1 % better in the high
rate reactors. Eventhough the performance was only a little shade (3.6%)
better in vermireactors with modified vermibeds, it indicates the feasibility
and application of these reactors to be run by the householders.
3. In both the types of vermireactors the high rate digesters performed better
than the corresponding low rate reactors. In the case of vermireactors with
conventional vermibed, the vermicast output of high rate reactors is 11%

Table 1 Vermicast output in low rate vermireactors with conventional and modified vermibeds
Days 1 Reactors with conventional vermibed
Reactors with modified vermibed
Vermicast output. g I Vermicast I Vermicist output, g I Verrnicast
-
Reactor I Reactor I1 Average output, mglllday Reactor l Reactor II Average output. mglVday
10 26.8
850.0 21.4 32.6 27.0 900.0
20 24.3
866.7 28.7 34.3 31.5 1050.0
30 31.4
11 00.0 34.2 26.8 30.5 1016.7
40 26.5
963.3 29.6 32.3 31 .O 1033.3
50 30.8
1053.3 33.8 31.7 32.8 1093.3
60 33.4
1073.3 32.4 33.8 33.1 1103.3
70 29.9
1053.3 29.4 32.3 30.9 1030.0
80 31.7
1063.3 34.3 33.6 34.0 1133.3
90 32.2
1063.3 32.9 34.2 33.6
1 120.0
100 28.6
966.7 30.8 32.7 31.8 1060.0
110 34.6
1123.3 26.2 35.3 30.8 1026.7
120 32.3
1110.0 33.6
*\
130 30.9
1056.7 31.7
140 32.3
1086.7 32.8
150 35.1
1 150.0 35.3
160 33.6
1 140.0 32.9
170 32.6
1073.3 34.3
1 136.7 35.4
Aver-
1051.7 31.7
27.3
33.8
34.3
38.1
36.2
37.9
36.8
33.6
30.5
32.8
33.6
36.7
34.6
36.1
36.1
32.6
1016.7
1093.3
1120.0
1223.3
1153.3
1203.3
1203.3
1087.8

1 2 3 4 5 6
Months
1 2 3 4 5 8
Months
QReactors with conventional verrnibed
Reactors with modified vermibed
Figure 1 Growth and reproduction of earthworms in low rate reactors
104

1
2 3 4 5 6
Months
2 3 4 5 6
Months
Reactors with conventional vermibed
Reactors with modified vermibed
Figure 2 Gro~ dh and reproduction of earthworms in high rate reactors

more than the low rate reactors. In the case of vermireactors with modified
vermibed, the percent difference between the high rate and low rate is
13.8%.
References
GajalakshmiS., Ramasamy,E.V., and S.A.Abbasi, S.A., 2001a. Towards
maximising output from vermireactors fed with cow-dung spiked paper waste.
Bioresource Technology, 79, 67-72.
GajalakshmiS., Ramasamy,E.V., and S.A.Abbasi, S.A., 2001b. Assessment of
sustainable vermiconversion of water hyacinth at different reactor efficiencies
Bioresource Technology, 80,131-1 35.
Gajalakshmi,S., and Abbasi, S.A., 2001 b. High-rate vermicomposting systems for
recycling paper waste. Indian Journal of Biotechnology, Inpress.

Chapter 13
Vermiconversion of paper waste by earthworm born and
grown in the waste-fed reactors compared to the pioneers
raised to adulthood on cowdung feed *
Abstract
S.Gajalakshmi and S.A.Abbasi
Centre for Pollution Control & Energy Technology
Pondicherry University, Kalapet, Pondicherry-605014
prof-abbasi@vsnl.com
The performance of four species of earthworm - Eudrilus eugeniae,Kinberg,
Drawida willsi,Michaelsen, Lampito mauritii, Kinberg and Perionyx
excavatus,Perrier - born and grown in vermireactors fed with paper waste was
studied over a 6 month span, in terms of vermicast output per unit feed,
production of offspring, and increase in worm zoomass. This was compared
with the performance of the previous generation which had been raised to
adulthood on cowdung as principal feed before shifting it to vermireactors
operating on cowdung-spiked paper waste.
The results indicate that except with D.willsi of which the second generation
performed just a shade better than the first, there was signifiicant
improvement in vermicast output, animal growth, and reproduction in the
second generation compared to the first. The results indicate that cowdungspiked
paper waste can be an adequate food for successive generations of
earthworms and that reactors can be operated indefinitely on this feed. The
results also indicate that the earthworm generations born and raised in
vermireactors operated on this feed become better vermicast producers than
the parent earthworms.
* Pre-print of the paper due to be published in Bioresource Technology

1. Introduction
We had assessed the performance of four species of earthworms in
vermicomposting cowdung-spiked paper waste (Gajalakshmi et a/, 2001a)
and had found that all the species survived, grew, and reproduced in the
vermireactors throughout the period of experiments - six months. The studies
had indicated that the vermireactors can be operated sustainably with
cowdung-spiked paper waste.
We had later introduced the concept of 'high-rate vermicomposting' in which
vernireactors were operated for upto six months with earthworm densities
several times higher than the ones hitherto recommended as 'ideal' for
vermicomposting (Gajalakshmi et a/, 2001 b,c). With such vermireactors it was
possible to obtain upto 5.6 times higher vermicast output per litre of reactor
volume than in conventional vermireactors, thereby gaining significant
advantage in terms of process economics.
Paper waste is a good source of organic carbon but is very lean in other
nutrients (Abbasi and Ramasamy, 1999). Therefore, in all the vermireactors
operated by us on paper waste, we had provided nutrient supplement in the
form of cowdung. During the first 15 days the feed had paper: cowdung in 4:l
wlw ratio. During the next 15 days the cowdung proportion was reduced so
that the feed had paper:cowdung in 5:l wlw ratio. In all subsequent runs the
feed consisted of paper: cowdung in 6:l ratio. The gradual reduction in the
cowdung proportion in this manner was done to enable the worms to
acclimatize with nutrient-lean feed.
In this paper we present an assessment of the performance of second
generation earthworms, born and raised in vermireactors running on
cowdung-spiked paper waste, in vermicomposting such waste.
2. Methods
The earthworms employed in the present study were the ones which had
been born in vermireactors fed with cowdung-spiked paper waste described in
Gajalakshmi et el, (2001a). They were removed from the experimental

vermireactors and raised to adulthood in separate reactors operated on the
same feed as was given to the reactors in which they were born.
At the start of the present experiments, four pairs of vermireactors were set
up as detailed earlier (Gajalakshmi et a/, 2001a). Each pair of reactors was
seeded with one of the four species of 20 healthy, adult, animals per reactor.
The reactors were operated for six months and their performance was
studied exactly in the manner detailed earlier (Gajalakshmi et a/, 2001a).
3. Results and Discussion
The vermicast production by the parent earthworms and by their first
generation offspring, born and grown in paper-fed vermireactors, is presented
in Table 1. With all earthworm species, the offspring have generated higher
average vermicast output than the parents, indicating that the offspring appear
to have been acclimatized with the paper feed. The extent of acclimatization is
most pronounced in the case of E.eugeniae, followed by P.excavatus and
L.mauritii. In case of D.willsi, the difference is only marginal.
The net increase in worm zoomass over the six montths period (Figure 1)
was also higher in case of offspring in comparison to their parents. In this
respect also, the trend was similar to the one observed with vermicast output.
The animal reproduction, as indicated by number of offspring produced
(Figure 1) was also higher in case of the worms born and grown in paper-fed
vermireactors.E.eugeniae and L.mauritii recorded the most significant impact
in this respect, followed by P.excavatus . D.willsi came last as it had done in
other respects as well.
The pattern of vermicast output as a function of time, along with 'trend lines'
drawn with the help of statistical package SMART (Arya and Abbasi, 2001) is
presented in Figure 2. In reactors with 'parent' earthwoms, the vermicast

Net increase in worm zoomass
Number of offspring produced
El Parent l Offspring
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
lParent l Offspring
Figure I Growth and reproduction of earthworms in six months

output per worm has risen more sharply than in reactors operated with the
offspring. It may be seen that:
a) The trend lines pertaining to reactors operated with parent earthworms
slope more sharply upwards than the trend lines pertaining to the offspring.
b) The difference in the slopes of the trend lines is sharpest with Lmauritii,
followed by E.eugeniae and P.excavatus. it is best noticeable in case of
D. willsi.
These findings indicate that whereas the parent earthworms took several
weeks to acclimatize themselves with paper waste feed, the offspring have
had no such difficulty. The mild upward slopes of the trend lines involving the
offspring suggest that vermicast ouptut appears to increase as the
earthworms gain in weight and breed.
Acknowledgement
The authors thank All India Council for Technical Education, New Delhi, for
the financial support.
References
Abbasi, S.A., and Ramasamy, E.V., 1999. Biotechnological methods of
pollution control. Orient Longman, Hyderabad. 168.
Arya, D.S., and Abbasi,S.A., 2001. SMART: A new software package for
environmental trend analysis. Journal of Institution of Public health Engineers,
2001,40-51.
Gajalakshmi,S., Ramasamy,E.V., and Abbasi, S.A., 2001a. Screening of four
species of detritivorous (humus-former) earthworms for sustainable
verrnicomposting of paper waste, Environmental Technology, 22, 679-685.
Gajalakshmi,S., Ramasamy,E.V., and Abbasi, S.A., 2001b. Towards
maximizing output from vermireactors fed with cowdung spiked paper waste.
Bioresource Technology, 79, 67-71.
Gajalakshmi,S., Ramasamy,E.V., and Abbasi, S.A., 2001c. Assessment of
sustainable vermiconversion of water hyacinth at different reactor efficiencies.
Bioresource Technology, 80, 131-1 35.
114

Part IV
Vermicomposting
of leaf litter

Part IV
Vermicomposting of leaf litter
The leaves falling from the trees are usually disposed off along the municipal
solid waste or they are piled and burnt. The resulting ash returns some of the
NPK content of the litter to the soil but much of nitrogen, phosphorous, and
organic carbon gets lost. The burning of litter also adds to air pollution.
Leaf litter can be cornpostedlvermicomposted and used as a soil conditioner
or fertilizer. In view of this the possibility of generating compost followed by
vermicomposting from leaf litter was explored.
This part comprises of two chapters. The chapter 'Cornposting -
vermicomposting of leaf litter ensuing from the trees of mango (Mangifera
indica)' reproduces a paper due for publication in Bioresource Technology.
The other chapter deals with composting-vermicornposting of neem litter, due
to be published in Indian Journal of Biotechnology.

Chapter 14
Composting - verrnicomposting of leaf litter ensuing from the
trees of mango (Mangifera indica)*
Abstract
S.Gajalakshmi, E.V.Ramasamy, and S.A.Abbasi
Centre for Pollution Control 81 Energy Technology
Pondicherry University, Kalapet
Pondicherry 605 014, India
The fertilizer value and marketability of the mango (Mangifera indica) tree leaf
litter compost was enhanced by subjecting it to vermicomposting with
Eudrilus eugeniae Kinberg. After over 9 months of continuous operation the
vermireactors with 62.5 animals I" generated - 13.6 g vermicast per litre of
reactor volume (I) per day (d) wheras the reactors with 75 animals f1
produced - 14.9 g vermicast I", d". The animals grew well in all reactors,
increasing their zoomass by - 103 % and producing - 157 offspring. Not a
single of the 1100 animals died during the first four months. In the subsequent
five months a total of 122 worms died, representing a loss of - 2 % per month.
We attribute this to the normal process of ageing.
The ability of the earthworms to survive, grow and breed in the verrnireactors
fed with composted mango tree leaves, and a rising trend in vermicast output
inspite of the death of a few worms after 4 months of reactor operation,
indicate the sustainability of this type of vermireactors. The studies also
indicate that even better vermireactor efficiency is possible by modifying the
reactor geometry.
' Pre-print of the paper due to be published in Bioresource Technology

Studies on changes in C:N ratio during composting and vermicomposting
revealed that whereas composting helped in lowering the ratio due to loss of
carbon in bacterial metabolism, vermicomposting had no such effect on the
ratio.
1. Introduction
Tree leaves falling on the ground below should, ideally, be left to their fate as
they play very important role in the protection and enrichment of soil. For
example, leaf litter shields soil from the vagaries of solar heat and wind
erosion. It provides food to the soil microorganisms and invertebrates who, in
turn, return much of the nutrients contained in the litter to the soil (Dash,
1993). Leaf litter also becomes a source of food to higher organisms - for
example birds feeding upon worms and insects nurtured by the litter.
Furthermore, leaf litter helps capture rainwater and delay its run-off, thereby
contributing to the soil moisture and groundwater recharge (Abbasi and
Ramasamy ,2001).
But leaf litter accumulating in urban and suburban locations such as
sidewalks, lawns, and playgrounds is deemed an unseemly sight. It is
normally broomed off into the piles of municipal solid waste (MSW), thereby
adding to the overall problem of MSW disposal. In India and several other
countries in the Southern hemisphere, leaf litter is often piled-up and set on
fire. The resulting ash returns some of the NPK content of the litter to the soil
but much of nitrogen, phosphorous, and organic carbon gets lost. The
burning of litter also adds to air pollution (Abbasi , 1999).
Leaf litter can be composted and used as a fertilizer or soil conditioner but
the market value of the compost is not high. Due to this factor few people in
urbanlsuburban localities take the initiative of collecting leaf litter and
generating compost from it. On the other hand vermicompost is priced about
three times higher than compost and is a favourite soil conditioner of the
farmers, especially in developing countries. Apart from providing to the soil
organic carbon and NPK, which a compost does, vermicompost is believed to
have additional attributes of providing enzymes and hormones which stimulate
117

plant growth (Abbasi and Ramasamy, 1999, 2001; lsmail 1997),
vermicompost is also believed to be more pathogen-free than compost. In
view of this we have explored the possibility of generating compost followed
by vermicompost from leaf litter. In this paper results of our studies on mango
tree leaves are presented. This uni-species leaf litter was chosen because
mango leaves are large (average surface area 65 cm2) and 'thick' (average
thickness - 0.9 mm). We presume that if mango tree leaves can be
composted - vermicomposted at a rapid rate, it should be possible to similarly
process smaller - sized and softer leaves of other trees even more easily.
The earthworm species employed in this work is Eudrilus eugeniae Kinberg
which had earlier proved more effective against water hyacinth, and nearly as
effective against paper waste, as Lampito mauritii Kinberg (Gajalakshmi et a/;
2001a,b). It had also proved by far the more effective vermicomposter of the
two substrates than Perionyx excavatus Perrier, and Drawida willsi
Michaelsen. In order to make the leaf litter ingestible by the earthworms, it
was first composted by a 'rapid' composting process developed by us as
described later in this paper.
2. Experimental
2.1. Vetmireactors
Vermireactors were set up by putting successive 1 cm, 2 cm, and 4 cm thick
layers of sawdust, river sand, and soil in circular 4 litre plastic containers. The
feed (composted leaf litter, 1 Kg) was laid out at the top of the vermibed. The
feed and the vermibed yielded a total 'reactor' volume of - 4 litres.
The reactors were started by introducing desired number of Eudrilus
eugeniae adults which, in turn were randomly picked from a cowdung-fed
culture of over 5000 animals. The average moisture content of the reactors
was maintained at - 45 * 1%, aided by weekly monitoring and periodic
sprinkling of desired quantities of water (Gajalakshmi et a1 ; 2001a,b).

2.2. Feed
The feed was prepared by composting partially dried litter of leaves fallen from
mango (Mangifera indica) trees. The composting was done as per a process
earlier standardized in this laboratory. It consisted of setting up successive
layers, 10 cm and 5 cm thick respectively, of leaf litter and dried cowdung
slurry in 50 1 wooden boxes. The slurry was drawn from the effluent sump of a
cowdung-fed biogas digester. The organic solids were topped with a lcm
layer of garden soil. The entire contents were sprinkled with adequate water
to generate average moisture content of - 50% and were covered with
cardboard and thick black plastic sheets. The temperature of the reactor
contents was monitored with digital probes (accuracy *O.l°C). After the initial
setting, the' compost boxes were left undisturbed as the aerobic process of
composting started and gradually lifted the temperature of the reactor
contents from the initial - 31% to 55-60% When the temperature began to
fall, the plastic covers were removed and the contents thoroughly mixed. The
covers were then replaced and the boxes left once again to continue the
composting. In this manner the leaf litter was turned into sludge-like compost
in - 5 weeks. It's C: N ratio, determined by standard methods (APHA, 1997)
at an average was 22.4.
2.3. Stoichiometry
All quantities mentioned in this paper represent 'dry' weight - oven dried at
105'C to constant weight - except earthworm zoomass which is reported as
live weight taken after rinsing the adhering material off the worms and drying
the worms with a blotting paper.
The vermicast was sieved after it was harvested to separate other particles.
A portion of the castings was then weighed and thoroughly washed with water
to separate the small soil particles (contained in the castings) from the organic
matter. The separated soil was oven dried (105'C) to constant weight. This
enabled determination of the mass fraction of soil particles contained in the
castings. This fraction was subtracted from the total mass of castings

ecovered. Thus, the vermiconversion data presented here pertains to the
conversion of only the feed to the castings, and excludes the entrained soil.
2.4. Reactor operation
Two of the vermireactors were each seeded with 250 animals and the other
two were each seeded with 300 animals. All the reactors were kept under
identical environmental setting. After 10 days of operation the castings were
harvested and the earthworms separated from each reactor while the rest of
the reactor content was discarded. The castings were quantified and the
'parent' earthworms were weighed as described in the preceding section. The
worm offspring, if any produced, were enumerated and returned to the
cowdung-fed cultures from where the 'parents' had been drawn. Immediately
thereafter verrnireactors were set afresh with new sawdust, river sand, soil
and feed. The 'parent' earthworms were reintroduced. This process was
repeated after every 10 days and enabled us to assess the performance of
the 'parent' earthworms over a course of - 9 months in terms of vermicast
output, zoomass gain, and offspring production. Resetting the vermireactors
before each run, and removing juveniles, enabled us to avoid accumulation of
feed as also significant competition for feed from the growing juveniles.
3. Results and discussion
The vermicast output for each run from the four reactors is presented in Table
1. Except in four cases (100" day, 190" day and 200'~ day harvest from lower
worm-density digesters and 50' day harvest from higher worm-density
digesters) when the output from reactors I and II varied to the extent of 15%,
the duplicates agreed to within * 10% of each other in all the runs. Given the
heterogeneous, all-solids reactants, the results indicate good reproducibility in
the vermireactor performance.
During the first three runs, the average output in both types of reactors was
lower than in any subsequent run. As the earthworms were drawn from
cowdung-fed cultures, this was apparently a time span during which the

Table 1 Recovery of vermicast (g, Kg" feed) every 10 days from reactors
operated at different earthworm densities
Days
Reactor operated with 250
animals (62.5 animals I")
Reactor l Reactor ll Average
10 485 463 474
20 502 495 499
30 462 512 487
40 514 542 528
50 532 572 552
60 496 534 51 5
70 484 517 501
532 498 51 5
5% 562 558
100 493 574 534
110 561 549 555
120 539 564 552
130 512
140 150
j ;:
536
556
520
524
550
526
160 561 558 560
170 498 507 503
180 523 561 542
190 538 631 585
200 51 1 592 552
210 543 576 560
220 578 602 590
230 557 61 3 585
240 568 594 581
250 582 598 590
260 620 565 593
609 612 61 1
534 556 545
Average
% of feed
53.4 55.6 54.5
270
- -
Average
Reactor operated with 300
animals (75 animals I")
Reactor l Reactor ll Average
51 2 498 505
548 524 536
536 544 540
567 522 545
594 529 562
584 564 574
538 546 542
592 598 595
554 601 578
578 574 576
594 605 600
598 591 595
591 580 586
608 579 594
584 601 593
549 585 567
61 1 594 603
598 616 607
668 645 657
568 608 588
614 626 620
576 609 593
617 628 623
692 686 689
672 656 664
703 686 696
681 664 673
597 595 596
59.7
59.5
59.6
1

animals adapted to the composted mango leaf litter feed.
If this lag phase is omitted from the vermicast yield calculations, the reactors
with worm density 62.5 individuals I" generated, on an average, 553 g
vermicast per run or 13.8 g I-' d" . In the reactors with 75 animals I.', the
average output per run was 605 g, or 15.1 g I" d". These figures compare
very favourably with the verrnicast output of less than 2 g I.' d" achievable in
vermireactors operated at the earthworm density of 7 1" recommended earlier
by several authors (Kumar, 1994; Dash and Senapati, 1986). Furthermore,
trend lines, drawn using the software Microsofl Excel (Microsoft, 1997)
indicate that the reactor output is still rising (Figure 1) and the average output
in future runs is likely to be higher than the average achieved thus far.
The earthworms in both types of reactors consistently produced offspring
and increased their net zoomass (Tables 2 and 3). The reactors with 62.5
and 75 animals I.' produced 153 and 163 offspring respectively over a 9 -
month span. The net increase in worm zoomass during the corresponding
period was 170.4 g and 21 1.8 g respectively. There was no mortality in any of
the reactor uptill the end of the first four months. In the following five months
2 % mortality was recorded per month which we attribute to the normal
process of ageing and death in a fraction of the worm population. Further, the
mortality wasn't high enough to upset the reactor performance. lnfact the
average vermicast output per reactor from the fifth month was higher than the
average output of the third and fourth months.
The average vermicast output per worm, 1.' d" from the fourth run onwards
was 55.3 mg in the less populous reactors and 50.4 mg in the more populous
ones. These calculations have been done assuming that the vermicast was
produced per 250 and 300 worms in the two types of the reactors. In other
words no reduction in the number of worms (caused by deaths) has been
done for the purpose of calculating the vermicast output per worm. The
figures reveal that eventhough net vermicast output was higher at higher
earthworm densities, the feed utilization per worm was lesser. The worm
zoomass gained per worm (Table 2) and the number of offspring produced

Table 2 Increase in worm zoomass each month in reactors operated with 62.5
worms I " and 75 worms I .'
Months
Reactor operated with 250
animals (62.5 worms I")
Reactor l
1 20.8
Reactor ll
21.6
Average
21.2
Reactor operated with 300
animals (75 worms fl)
Reactor l
20.8
Reactor ll
23.4
Average
22.1

Table3 Number of offspring produced each month operated with 62.5 worms I -I
and 75 worms 'I
Months
1
2 11
3 1 ' 15
16
I
i
Reactor operated with 250
worms (62.5 worms I")
Reactor l
10
22
6 15
7 I 13
8 14
9 21
Total
137
Reactor ll
14
13
13
18
26
2 1
2 1
18
25
169
Average
12
12
14
17
24
18
17
16
23
153
Reactor operated with 300
worms (75 worms I")
Reactor l
10
14
13
14
20
19
15
22
16
143
Reactor ll
13
15
17
22
22
25
2 1
26
22
183
Average
11.5
14.5
15
18
2 1
22
18
24
19
163

(Table 3) were also significantly lesser in more populous reactors. These
results indicate that the full potential of the earthworms is not being utilized in
reactors with 75 animals per litre and is likely to be so even in reactors with
62.5 animals 1 litre. The possible reason for this may be the reactor geometry
-the tanks utilized by us had a low surface-to-volume ratio. As E.eugeniae
are epigeic and phytophagous worms (Abbasi and Ramasamy, 2001; Ismail,
1997), they do not burrow deep and their feeding and vermicasting activities
occur on the reactor surface. It appears possible that reactors with the same
volume as employed here but with larger surface-volume ratios may facilitate
better verrnicast output. Studies of this type on optimising vermireactor
performance are particularly significant as no scientifically developed design
criteria exists as of now (CPCB, 1999).
The C: N ratio of compost as well as vermicompost as a function of time was
determined by standard methods (APHA, 1997). The process of composting
gradually improved th fraction of nitrogen (Table 4), as some of the carbon
was lost in the form of bacterial metabolites, principally CO2. As a result the
C:N ratio was lowered eventhough no nitrogen was added. However,
vermicomposting had no significant impact on the C:N ratio (Table 5) and it
hovered around the figure reached during the composting. This indicates that
there is no significant loss of carbon during verrnicomposting.
Acknowledgement
Authors thank All lndia Council of Technical Education, New Delhi, for
financial support.
References
Abbasi, S.A., 1999. Environmental pollution and it's control. Second edition.
Cogent International, Philadelphia and Pondicherry, pp, viii+442.
Abbasi, S.A., and Rarnasamy, E.V., 1999. Biotechnological methods of
pollution control. Orient Longman (Universities Press lndia Ltd) Hyderabad,
India, 168 pages.

Table 4 Decline in CIN ratio during the cornposting process
Table 5 C/N ratio of the vermicompost harvested from each run
Months
1
2
3
4
5
6
CIN ratio
21.3
22.2
19.6
20.8
18.7
22.3
I Average I 20.5*1.81

Abbasi, S.A., and Ramasamy, E.V., 2001. Solid waste management with
earthworms. Discovery Publishing House, New Delhi, 178 pages.
APHA, 1997. American Public Health Association (cited as APHA) Standad
methods for the examination of Water and Wastewater 201h edition,
Washington DC.
CPCB, 1999 (Central Pollution Control Board). Vermiculture biotechnology
for solid waste and sewage management, Report number nil, Central Pollution
Control Board, New Delhi; 18 pages.
Dash, M.C., 1993. Fundamentals of ecology, Tata McGraw - Hill, New Delhi,
210 pages.
Dash, M.C., and Senapati, B.K., 1986. Vermitechnology, an option for organic
waste management in India. In: Dash, M.C., Senapati,B.K., and Mishra,
P.C.,(Eds.). Proceedings of the national seminar on organic waste utilization
by vermicomposting. Part B : Verms and vermicomposting, 157- 172.
Gajalakshmi ,S., Ramasamy, E.V., and Abbasi, S.A., 2001a. Potential of two
epigeic and two anecic earthworm species in vermicomposting water
hyacinth. Bioresource Technology, 76 : 177-1 81
Gajalakshmi ,S., Rarnasarny, E.V., and Abbasi, S.A., 2001b. Screening of four
species of detritivorous (humus - former) earthworms for sustainable
vermicomposting of paper waste. Environmental Technology, 22 : 679 - 685.
lsmail ,S.A., 1997. Vermicology - the Biology of Earthworms. Orient
Longman, Hyderabad, 92 pages.
Kumar, C.A., 1994. State of the art report on vermiculture in India. Council for
Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology (CAPART), New
Delhi,GO pages.
Microsoft , Excel, 1997. Version 8.0.

Chapter 15
Neem leaves as a source of fertilizer-cum-pesticide
vermicompost *
S. Gajalakshmi and S.A. Abbasi
Center for Pollution Control and Energy Technology
Pondicherry University, Kalapet, Pondicherry - 605 014
Neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss) is a large, evergreen, and hardy tree,
native to the lndian sub-continent (Chari, 1996). It grows easily and su~ives
even on dry, nutrient-lean soils (Randhwa and Parmar, 1996).
Neem has been popular, even revered, in the lndian sub-continent. It is
friendly to other vegetation but repels insects (Arora, 1996). Its leaves and
fruit - both exceedingly bitter - are known to possess fungicidal, and
nematicidal properties (Alarn, 1996; Parveen & Alam, 1996). In recent years,
neem has attracted global attention due to its potential as a source of natural
drugs as also environment-friendly pesticides ( Agarwal, 1996 ).
In the present study leaves of neem have been explored as substrate for
generating vermicompost.
Experimental
Cornposting of neem leaf litter
Freshly fallen as well as partially dried neem leaves were collected from
several locations close to the authors' laboratory. These were stacked-up as
- 10 cm thick layers interspersed with - 5 cm thick layers of dried cowdung
slurry in 50 1 wooden boxes. The resulting heap was topped with a 1 cm layer
of garden soil, and sprinkled with adequate water to generate average
moisture content of - 50%. The heap was then covered with cardboard and
Pre-print of the paper due to be published in lndian Journal of Biotechnology

thick black plastic sheets. Its temperature was monitored with digital probes
(accuracy *0.I0C). After the initial setting, the compost heaps, one in each of
the wooden boxes, were left undisturbed as the aerobic process of
composting started and gradually heated the reactor contents from the initial -
3I0C to 55-60°C. When the temperature began to fall, the plastic covers were
removed and the contents thoroughly mixed. The covers were then replaced
and the boxes left once again to continue the composting. In this manner the
leaf litter was turned into compost in - 5 weeks.
Vermicomposting of the neem compost
Vermireactors were set up in the same fashion as for mango leaf compost
described in Gajalakshmi et a/, 2002. The experimental protocol in terms of
reactor operation, mass balance, and analytical procedures also closely
followed the one described in Gajalakshmi et a/, 2002
Results and discussion
Neem Compost
The neem compost is dark brown in colour and humus-like in form. It's CIN
ratio, an average of 9 determinations was 19.8 1.4. The neem leaf compost
has greater proportion of nitrogen than the mango leaf compost which had a
C:N ratio of 22.4.
Vermicomposting in neem-fed reactors
Even as neem kills nematodes rather easily, it had no deleterious effect on
earthworms. Rather, the earthworms fed upon the neem compost even more
voraciously than they did on the mango leaf compost : the vermicast output in
neem-based vermireactors with 62.5 worms I-' was 16.4 g per litre of reactor
volume per day (Table I ) and in reactors with 75 worms I-' it was 17 g I-' d-'
(Table 2). The output is 16.9% and 14.5% higher than from vermireactors of
similar worm density fed with mango leaf littre compost. The neem
vermicornpost had more nitrogen per unit mass of carbon (C:N ratio 18.7)
than neem compost, mango compost, and mango vermicompost.
130

Table 1 Recovery of vermicast in reactors with 250 animals
Days
I0
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
150
160
170
180
Average
Reactor I
637.5
621.8
648.6
642.7
656.8
669.3
681.6
669.6
626.6
648.7
627.2
636.4
669.5
642.4
650.2
658.3
664.2
661.8
650.7
Vermicast output (g)
Reactor ll
642.4
630.7
676.4
662.2
651.8
668.4
674.8
643.2
666.7
686.4
646.5
661 .I
659.8
663.1
661.2
652.5
656.2
658.9
659.0
Average
640.0
626.3
662.5
652.5
654.3
668.9
678.2
656.4
646.7
667.6
636.9
648.8
664.7
652.8
655.7
655.4
660.2
660.4
654.9
Verrnicast output
g I" d-'worm-'
0.064
0.063
0.066
0.065
0.065
0.067
0.068
0.066
0.065
0.067
0.064
0.065
0.066
0.065
0.066
0.065
0.066
0.066
0.066
g I-' d-'
16.0
15.7
16.5
16.3
16.4
16.7
17.0
16.4
16.2
16.7
15.9
16.2
16.6
16.3
16.4
16.4
16.5
16.5
16.4

Table 2 Recovery of verrnicast in reactors with 300 worms
Days I Verrnicant output (g) I Vermicast output 1
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
150
160
170
180
Average
Reactor I
661.6
686.2
642.6
649.2
640.9
678.4
698.4
676.6
684.2
660.4
688.1
698.2
680.7
707.3
738.7
722.2
714.3
727.0
686.4
Reactor II
669.4
648.6
688.2
690.4
680.7
698.9
682.6
688.5
692.2
721.4
702.2
729.6
718.3
756.2
748.4
738.3
750.8
746.4
708.4
Average
665.3
g I-' d-'worm-'
0.055
667.4 0.056
665.4 0.055
669.8 0.056
660.8 0.055
688.7 0.057
690.5 0.058
682.6
688.2
690.9 1
0.057
0.057
0.058
695.2 0.058
713.9 0.059
699.5 0.058
731.8 0.061
743.6 0.062
730.3 0.061
732.6 0.061
736.7 0.061
697.4
0.058
g I-' d"
16.6
16.7
16.6
16.7
16.5
17.2
1
17.3
1
17.1
17.2
17.3
17.4
17.8
17.5 1 18.3
18.6
18.3
18.3 (
18.4
17.4 ,

All the 1100 animals with which the experiment was started remained
healthy till the termination of the experiment 6 months later. Their zoomass
(average per worm) increased by - 36% in less populous of the reactors, and
by 29%, in the more populous ones (Figure la). In all the reactors offspring
were produced within 30 days of the start of the experiment and the number of
offspring produced per month steadily increased in all the reactors indicating
that worm reproduction went up as the animals became increasingly
accustomed to the neem-based feed (Figure Ib)
As in the case of vermireactors operated with mango litter compost, the
vermireactors with the present feed also performed with a high degree of
reproducibility; the duplicates agreed with each other within a i 5 % margin.
References
Agarwal,A., 1996. What's in a neem? Down to Earth 14 {20), 27-38
Alam, M.M., 1996. Bioacivity against phytonematodes. In : Neem.
Randhawa, N.S and Parrnar, B.S. (Eds.) New Age International, 171-191.
Arora, R.K., 1996. Genetic diversity and Ethnobotany. In : Neem Randhawa,
N.S and Parmar, B.S. (Eds.) New Age International, 33-37.
Chari, MS., 1996. Neem and Transfer of Technology. In : Neem and
Environment. Sinh, R.P., Chari, MS., Raheja, A.K., and Kraus, W. (Eds.).
Vol I. Oxford & IBH Publishing Co., 27-38.
Gajalakshmi, S., Ramasamy, E.V., and Abbasi,S.A., 2002. Composting-
vermicomposting of leaf litter ensuing from the leaves of mango (Mnagifera
indica). Bioresource Technology, in press.
Parveen, G., and Alam, M.M, 1996. Bioactivity against plant pathogens. In :
Neem. Randhawa, N.S. and Parmar, B.S. (Eds.) New Age International, 192-
201.
Randhawa, N.S., and Parmar, B.S. 1996. lntroductoty In: Randhawa,N.S and
Parrnar, B.S (Eds.). Neem. New Age International, New Delhi, 1-5.

0Reactors with 250 animals BReactors with 300 annals
3&7 r----.--.------ .. -. . -. . -
I
1 2 4 5 6
Months
a) Increase in worm zoomass
Months
b) Number of offspring produced
Figure 1 Growth and reproduction in reactors with different earthworm densities

Part V
Utilizability of compost/
Vermicompost

Assessment of impact of vermicast generated from reactors
fed with water hyacinth I neem leaves on plant growth
Whereas vermicast generated from animal dung is universally believed to be
beneficial to soil and plants, there are no reports giving evidence that the
same may be true of vermicasts generated from other sources. During the
efforts to involve villagers in vermicomposting (described in Part VI of the
thesis and also in Gajalakshmi and Abbasi, 2002), several farmers expressed
reservations about using water hyacinth vermicast as fertilizer, conveying the
fear that the vermicast may be harmful to the plants.
Hence, in order to assess whether such apprehensions are reasonable, we
have conducted two types of experiments;
(a) Qualitative studies were done on vegetable plants at the kitchen garden of
five farmers.
(b) Controlled experiments were conducted on an ornamental flowering plant.
This study is detailed in chapter 16 and is due to appear in Bioresource
Technology.
Chapter 17 deals with neem leaf litter. In recent years, neem has attracted
global attention due to its potential as a source of natural drugs as also
environment-friendly pesticides (Agarwal, 1996). With this in view, neem
leaves were explored as a substrate for generating vermicompost. The use of
the neem vermicompost as fertilizer-cum-pesticide was also explored with
respect to its impact on the growth of a common vegetable plant. The study is
due to be published in Environmental Technology.

References
Agarwal,A., 1996. What's in a neern? Down to Earth 14 {20), 27-38.
Gajalakshrni, S., and Abbasi, S.A., 2002. Effect of the application of water
hyacinth cornposUverrnicornpost on the growth and flowering of Crossandra
undulaefolia, and on several vegetables. Bioresource Technology, in press.

Abstract
Chapter 16
Effect of the application of water hyacinth
compostlvermicompost on the growth and flowering of
Crossandra undulaefolia, and on several vegetables*
S. Gajalakshmi and S.A. Abbasi
Centre for Pollution Control & Energy Technology
Pondicherry University, Kalapet, Pondicherry - 605 014, INDIA
The impact of the application of compost~vermicompost obtained from water
hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes, Mart. Solms) on plants was assessed in terms of
growth and flowering of the angiosperm crossandra (Crossandra undulaefolia)
Overall nine morphological, size, and yield attributes were studied in crossandra
saplings raised on water hyacinth compost or vermicompost as compared to the
untreated saplings. The studies reveal that application of vermicompost led to
statistically significant improvement in the growth and flowering of crossandra
compared to the untreated plants. The impact of compost was also beneficial but
a little less distinct than the positive impact of vermicompost. Qualitative studies
were simultaneously conducted in five kitchen gardens owned by farmers near
Pondicherry. In three of these locations water hyacinth vermicompost was
applied - and no other fertilizer - for months to different species of vegetables.
Water hyacinth compost was similarly applied in another two locations. In all the
locations no adverse effect on any of the plant species was observed.
We believe these studies would help in dispelling the apprehension of farmers
that compost I vermicompost obtained form a pernicious weed like water
hyacinth may have deleterious effect on other plants.
* Pre-print of the paper due to be published in Bioresource Technology

1, Introduction
We have been studying various aspects of composting and vermicomposting of
water hyacinth with emphasis on developing more efficient, hence more
economically attractive, systems for the utilization of water hyacinth than
available hitherto (Gajalakshmi et al 2001 a, b, c). We have also made attempts
to attract marginal farmers towards utilizing water hyacinth in this manner
(Rajalingam 2001). During such attempts apprehensions were raised by the
farmers that compost or vermicompost obtained from water hyacinth -which is a
pernicious weed, widely perceived as a scourge of farmers - may be harmful to
the plant growth. The fear was widespread and threatened to saboutage the
author's attempts of developing a method of utilizing water hyacinth beneficial to
the farmers. Hence, in order to decide whether such apprehensions are
reasonable we have conducted two types of experiments:
Qualitative studies were done at the kitchen gardens of five farmers. In each
location - 4 m2 plots were marked out and the following common vegetables
were planted : lady's finger (Hibiscus esculentus), brinjal (Solanurn melongena),
cluster bean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba), chilli (Capsicum annum), and tomato
(Lycopersicon esculentum). Three of the plots were treated with water hyacinth
vermicompost and two of the plots with equal quantity of water hyacinth compost.
As these were qualitative studies basically to see whether the water hyacinth
compost I vermicompost discourages plant growth, no controls of unfertilized
plots were studied.
Controlled experiments with and without fertilization with the water hyacinth
compost I vermicompost were conducted on the saplings of Crossandra
unduleefolia, an angiosperm and a free-branching perennial herb ( Pandey ,
1982 ). It is an ornamental plant, and is marketed as such. Crossandra is often
grown to beautify kitchen gardens as it is small in size and sports attractive
flowers. This species was chosen for the study for three reasons: it is well
established in the area where the authors work; it is fast growing; and it flowers
early and profusely.

Whereas the first set of experiments were qualitative, the second set aimed to
quantify the impact of water hyacinth compost I vermicompost.
2. Methods
2.1. General
All quantities mentioned below represent dry (oven dried at 105'C to constant)
weights unless otherwise stated. Water hyacinth was composted and
vermicomposted as detailed earlier ( Gajalakshmi et al, 2002 ).
2.1.1. Controlled experiments with C.undulaefolia
Ten day old saplings of C.undulaefolia (height 7.4 * 0.8 cm), raised in the
nursery of Pondicherry University, were transplanted in 8 litre cement pots.
Three sets of 15 pots each were employed for this purpose. The first set had 4
kg soil mixed with 2 kg water hyacinth compost; the second set had 4 kg soil
blended with 2 kg vermicornpost, and the third set, to serve as controls had only
6 kg soil. All pots were uniformly irrigated once a day. The plants were observed
daily for plant height, number of leaves, root length, days to first flowering,
number of flowers, and length of the inflorescence. Plant biomass, root : shoot
ratio (by weight), and harvest index - were studied on the 90Ih and the 180'~ day
of the experiment by sacrificing 5 randomly picked samples from each set on
both occasions. The harvest index (hi) was defined as :
total flower biomass (g)
hi = X 100
total plant biomass (g)
2.1.2. Qualitative studies in the kitchen gardens
At five households located across three villages near Pondicherry, - 4 m2 plots
were marked in the respective kitchen gardens. In three of the plots 2 kg
vermicompost and in two of the plots an equal quantity of compost were applied.
Five species of vegetables, one in each plot, with - 20 plants m2 were planted :
lady's finger (Hibiscus esculentus), brinjal (Solanum melongena), cluster bean
(Cyamopsis tetragonoloba), chilli (Capsicum annum), and tomato (Lycopersicon

esculentum). All the plots were irrigated whenever the rest of the kitchen garden
was irrigated -which was normally once a day.
2.1.3. Tests of significance
The significance of enhancement (E) or suppression (S) in the performance of
the crossandra plants grown in compost I vermicompost treated pots compared
to the controls was assured by Student's t test . For each of the nine parameters
used to assess the performance, statistical significance or othenrvise of the
difference was assessed in terms of the confidence level (%) associated with the
change. The tests were performed with software SMART (Arya and Abbasi,2001)
based on the standard procedure of the Student's t test (Levin,l990).
3. Results and discussion
The findings from the experiments with crossandra are summarized in Table 1.
The pots containing soil amended with water hyacinth compost had crossandra
plants achieving significantly better height, larger number of leaves, more
favorable shoot : root ratio, greater biomass per unit time and larger length of
inflorescence. In terms of root length, quicker onset of flowering and harvest
index, too, the treated plants on an average performed better than the controls
but the enhancement was not statistically significant.
The positive impact was more pronounced in plants treated with vermicompost;
indeed in respect of all the nine parameters there was statistically significant (at,
95% confidence level) enhancement in performance. Of particular interest is the
enhancement in the flower yield and harvest index by vermicompost as these
attributes directly enhance the benefits from the cultivation of crossandra.
Observations on the five kitchen gardens also revealed total absence of any
harmful effect of compost I vermicompost. Rather, the farmer's view was that the
vegetables grew better than normal on the treated plots. We may mention that as
the success of these experiments became common knowledge in the villages
where we are working, there has been a spurt in the utilization of water hyacinth
through composting and vermicomposting.

Table 1 Effect of the application of water hyacinth compost I vermicompost on the growth of Crossandra ( Cmssandm
undulaefolia )
Attribute
In control
Number of
leaves
90" day 7226.42
180" day 786.07
Total dry weight
gorn day
180" day
17.76i0.58
19.34iO.59
In pots treated
with
compost
18.7i0.64
20.9i1.03
Enhancement (E) or Enhancement(E)or
In pots treated suppression (S) in suppression(S)in
with compost treated pots vermicompost treated
vermicompost compared to controls. pots compared to controls.
at confidence level at confidence level
18.96f0.75
21.64*1.42
E 90%
E 98%
E 95%
E 98%

Table 1 continued.
Days to first
flowering 45i5.10
i
Number of
flowers per plant
90~ day 1 1.4i4.03
18om day 19.4i3.01
inflorescence

Acknowledgement
Authors thank Department of Science and Technology, Government of India,
New Delhi, for sponsoring the study.
References
Arya,D.S., and Abbasi, S.A., 2001. SMART: A new software package for
environmental trend analysis. Journal of the Institution of Public Health
Engineers, New Delhi, 2001, 40-51.
Gajalakshmi, S., Rarnasamy, E.V., Abbasi, S.A., 2001 a. Potential of two epigeic
and two anecic earthworm species in vermicompoting water hyacinth.
Bioresource Technology 76, 177-181.
Gajalakshmi, S., Ramasamy, E.V., Abbasi, S.A., 2001 b. Verrnicomposting of
different forms of water hyacinth by the earthworm Eudrilus eugeniae, Kinberg.
Bioresource Technology, in press.
Gajalakshmi, S., Ramasamy, E.V., Abbasi, S.A., 2001c . Assessment of
sustainable vermiconversion of water hyacinth at different reactor efficiencies
employing Eudrilus eugeniae Kinberg, Bioresource Technology, 80, 131-135.
Gajalakshmi, S., Ramasamy, E.V., Abbasi, S.A., 2002 High-rate composting-
vermicomposting of water hyacinth (Eichhomia crassipes, Mart. Solms).
Bioresource Technology, in press.
Levin, R.I., 1990. Statistics for management. Fourth Edition. Prentice-Hall of
India, New Delhi.
Pandey, B.P., 1982. Taxonomy of angiosperms. Fourth edition. S. Chand and
Company, New Delhi .
Rajalingam, M., 2001. Development of know-how and its extension for the
composting 1 vermicomposting of water hyacinth and other solid wastes. M.Phi1
thesis , Pondicherry University , Pondicherry .

Chapter 17
Effect of the application of neem verrnicornpost on the growth
and yield of the vegetable plant, $olanum melongena Linn*
Abstract
S. Gajalakshmi and S.A. Abbasi
Centre for Pollution Control & Energy Technology
Pondicherry University, Kalapet, Pondicherry - 605 014, INDIA
The impact of the application of vermicompost obtained from neem
(Azadimchta indica) on plants was assessed in terms of growth and yield of
the brinjal plant Solanum melongena Linn. Morphological, and yield attributes
were studied in brinjal saplings treated with neem vermicornpost as compared
to the untreated saplings. The studies reveal that application of vermicompost
led to statistically significant improvement in the growth and yield of brinjal
plants compared to the untreated plants.
1. Introduction
Earlier experiments were conducted to study the effect of
composffvermicompost obtained from water hyacinth on the growth and yield
of Crossandm unduleefolia, and on several vegetables (Gajalakshmi and
Abbasi, 2002). The studies revealed that application of vermicompost led to
statistically significant improvement in the growth and flowering of crossandra
compared to the untreated plants. The impact of compost was also beneficial
but a little less distinct than the positive impact of vermicompost. Qualitative
studies were simultaneously conducted in kitchen garden owned by farmers.
The farmer's view was that the vegetables grew better than normal on the
treated plots. Hence in the present study, attempt was made to conduct
quantitative studies on the effect of vermicompost on the growth and yield of
plants.
Pre-print of the paper due to be published in Environmental Technology
144

Brinjal is an erect, herbaceous, perennial plant. The leaves are simple, large
and lobed. The flowers are blue in colour. The fruits are large, dark purple
berries capped with thick persistent calyx (Varier, 1996). The fruits are used
as vegetable. Sometimes the plant is grown for ornamental purpose (Usher,
1984). Since it is a common plant, fast growing and yielding, it is chosen for
the study.
2. Methods
All quantities mentioned below represent dry (oven dried at 105'C to constant)
weights unless otherwise stated.
2.1 Neem vermicompost
Neem has attracted global attention due to its potential as a source of natural
drugs as also environment friendly pesticides (Agarwal, 1996). Studies were
made to explore neem as a substrate for generating vermicompost. Freshly
fallen leaves as well as partially dried neem leaves were collected and
subjected to composting. Cornposting was done as per the procedure detailed
elsewhere (Gajalakshmi et al, 2002).
The neem compost was given as feed to the earthworms. The earthworms
fed upon the neem compost more voraciously than they did on the mango leaf
compost (Gajalakshmi et a/, 2002). The average CIN ratio of neem
vermicompost was 18.7( an average of 9 determinations).
2.2 Controlled experiments with S. melangina
Two plots of 4 m2 area were marked out and 50 brinjal saplings of 10 days
old were planted in each plot. One plot was supplemented with neem
vermicompost @ 1 kg/ m2 and the other plot was lefl untreated. Afler 2
months, the untreated control plot was also supplemented with neem
vermicompost at the same rate as the test plot. The plots were uniformly
irrigated once a day.

The plants were observed daily for the following parameters: plant height, root
length, days to first flowering, number of flowers, number of fruits and fruit
length. Another set of parameters - total plant biomass, fruit biomass, root-
shoot ratio, fertility coefficient, harvest index - were studied on the 3oth, 60Ih,
goth, 120th, and 150'~ day of the experiment by sacrificing 5 randomly picked
samples from each set.
The harvest index (hi) is defined as
hi = total fruit biomass x 100
total plant biomass
and the fertility coefficient is defined as
Tests of significance
number of fruits produced per plant x 100
total number of flowers per plant
The significance of enhancement (E) or suppression (S) in the performance of
the brinjal plants grown in vermicompost treated plots compared to the
controls was assured by Student's t test. For all the parameters used to
assess the performance, statistical significance or otherwise of the difference
was assessed in terms of the confidence level (%) associated with the
change. The tests were performed based on the standard procedure of the
Student's t test (Levin, 1990).
Results and discussion
The findings from the experiments with brinjal are summarised in Table 1. The
plot supplemented with neem vermicompost had plants achieving significantly
better height, root length, greater biomass per unit time, quicker onset of
flowering, and enhancement in fruit yield. In terms of fertility coefficient and
harvest index too, in treated plots, there was statistically significant
enhancement in performance. With the supplementation of neem
vermicompost after 2 months in control plots, there was increase in plant
height, root length, total biomass and number of flowers and fruits produced .
The difference in the various parameters between treated plants and control

Table1 Effect of application of neem vermicompost on the growth and yield of
brinjal (Solanurn melongena Linn)
Attribute
1. Plant length, cm
30'~ day
60'~ day
90lhday
120thday
150'~ day
2. Root length, cm
30'~ day
60" day
90'~da~
120Ih day
150'~ day
3. Shoot-root ratio
3oth day
60'~ day
goth day
120'~ day
150'~ day
4.Total plant
weight, g
3oth day
6oth day
90Ih day
120'~ day
150'~ day
5. Days first
flowering
6. Flowers per
plant
3o"day
60' day
90' day
120'~ day
150Ihday
In control plot
21.7 * 2.1
26.7 * 2.5
30.5 * 1.6
35.4 * 1.3
39.7 * 2.1
6.6 i 0.6
8.7 i 0.7
11.8t 1.1
19.7 r 1.6
26.2 i 2.1
3.2 t 0.3
3.3 i 0.3
3.4 t 0.3
3.7 t 0.3
3.9 i 0.2
22.2 i 3.6
42.3 t 12.4
52.8 i 11.0
72.6 t 17.0
78.2 i 7.7
38.6 i 2.4
1.4i1.2
4.2 t 1.7
5.4 i 1.9
8.8 t 2.9
9.0t1.4
plot treated
with
venicompost
24.1 f 1.5
28.7 f 3.0
34.0f 1.1
38.3 f 7.3
40.7 k 1.7
7.9i 1.2
9.3 i 0.6
15.3i1.2
20.5 i 1.3
27.3 i 2.0
3.4 r 0.3
3.6 i 0.3
3.9 i 0.2
3.8t 0.2
3.8 k 0.2
45.4 i 10.9
70.8 t 3.5
63.0 t 10.3
81.3 r 8.3
91.1 i 8.6
31.4 k 2.3
5.4 t 1.9
8.2 t 1.7
8.0 i 1.4
9.6 k 1.6
10.8k2.1
147
Enhancement (E) or Suppression
(S) in vermicompost treated plot
compared to control at confidence
level
E 90 %
E >50%
E 99%
E z98 %
E 50 %
E 90 %
E 80 %
E 99 %
E >50 %
E 50 %
I
i
E >50% I
E 90 %
I
E 98% I
E >SO%
E (50 %
E 99 %
E 99 %
E >50%
E >50% I
E 90 % 1
I
E 99 %
E 99 %
E >98%
E >90%
E ~ 5 0 %
E 80%
i
I
I

.7. Fruit length, cm I 1 -?
30lh day
6oth day
90lh day
12dh day
150'~ day
8. Number of fruits
produced
30Ih day
60Ih day
goth day
120Ih day
I 150'~ day
I 9. Total fruit
! weight, g
1 3oth day
6oth day
I goih day
I 120'~ day
i 150th day
I
10. Fertility
I coefficient
1 6oth day
goth day
I 120'~ day
150Ihday
11. Harvest index
1 30" day
i 60Ih day
I 90" day
120" day
150th day
1.7 r 2.1
8.2 i 0.5
8.5 r 0.5
8.6 i 0.3
0.2 t 0.4
2.0 i 1.4
3.2 t 1.2
5.0 t 1.8
5.4 t 0.8
1.9 13.8
18.3 t 13.0
28,2 t 10.9
44.6 t 16.3
49.7 t 8.2
40.1k22.1
59.3r5.6
56.6t7.6
60.557.8
6.5 1 13,O
37.2r 21.8
51.4 r 9.6
59.4 r 9.2
633. r 5.8
2.7 t 2.3
8.3 r 0.3
8,7 t 0.4
8.9 t 0.3 I
I
2.6 r 1.2 90 %
4.8 t 0.4 99 %
5.6 r 1.0
6.4t 1.0 80 %
I I
23.4 r 10.5 E >99 %
45.4 i 2.9 1 E 99 %
37.4 t 10.1
>50 %
51.5 t 8.4 1 E 50 %
59.3 t 9.4 / E 80 %
46.1f8.4
E 99 %
60.3f9.1
49.9t9.3
58.8f8.6
1
i
E
E
E
>80°h
>80%
(50%
59.8f4.3
E (50%
48.8 1 11.6
70.4 f 9.2
55.3 r 11.0
62.9 f 4.3
64.8 f 4.4
E 99 %
E 98 % I
E (50 % I
E (50 %
E (50 % i
I

plants treated with vermicompost after 2 months was not significant
statistically. Hence it can be inferred that neem vermicompost has positive
impact on plants.
References
Agarwal,A., 1996. What's in a neem? Down to Earth 14 {20), 27-38
Gajalakshmi, S., and Abbasi, S.A., 2002. Effect of the application of water
hyacinth compost/vermicompost on the growth and flowering of Crossandra
undulaefolia, and on several vegetables. Bioresource Technology, in press.
Gajalakshmi, S., Ramasamy, E.V., and Abbasi, S.A., 2002. Composting-
vermicomposting of leaf litter ensuing from the trees of mango (Mangifera
indica). Bioresource Technology, in press.
Levin, R.T., 1990. Statistics for management. Fourth edition. S.Chand and
Company, New Delhi.
Usher, G., 1984. A Dictionary of plants used by man. CBS Publishers and
Distributors, India.
Varier, P.S.,1996. Indian medicinal plants. A compendium of 500 species
Vaidyaratnam. AryaVaidya Sala Kottakal. Orient Longman.

Part VI
Extension of know-how at
village / suburban levels

Part Vl
Extension of the know-how at village I suburban levels
This part comprises of two chapters. Chapter 18 details the attempt made to
extend the developed know-how of cornposting / vermicomposting to people
at village I suburban levels.
The other chapter (chapter 19) describes the study made to collect and
process the waste generated at the Pondicherry University campus.

Chapter 78
Extension of the developed know-how of composfing and
1.0 INTRODUCTION
vermicomposting at village/sub-urban level
In the preceding parts of the thesis we have described efforts to identify
species of earthworms best suited to vermicompost different types of
substrates. We have also described other studies aimed at improving the
vermireactor efficiency.
We have simultaneously made efforts to draw farmers and other
householders in the rural and suburban Pondicherry towards
compostinglvermicomposting (Plates 1 and 2) These initiatives were taken
with the hope that popularization of composting/verrnicornposting among the
rural population would encourage it to drive benefits from biodegradable solid
waste, which, otherwise, is a major source of land and water pollution. Such
solid waste also, indirectly, harms public health by its inadvertent role in
supporting insects and rodents.
The pilot studies on extending the composting/vermicomposting know-how to
villages were conducted at three locations (Figure 1).
i) Kalapet and Pillaichavady: This location, close to the north-eastern
extremity of Pondicherry involves two adjacent villages. Both villages lie
on the coast and the majority of the population in both comprises of
fisherfolk.
ii) Abishegapakkam: This location is about 8 kms south of downtown
Pondicherry and involves people engaged in subsistence agriculture.
Paddy, millets, groundnuts, sugarcane, and casuarina are the major
crops. Due to the agricultural activities the village generates large
quantities of agrowaste.

F'latc 7 anti 2 mpa;:8-:~: the nni!w-how of compost~r-I(] ' v~~~rr~~cor~ipostrig to group
: ,.:I, it.: ':. ;ic::.de ;ill(! a: nouseho~~j level below;

TN
TN
TN . Tam11 Nadu 0 Pondicherry
Figure 1 Location of the villages where the know-how of composting and
vermicomposting was extended
I
i
I
6
Kalapet
m

About 9 water bodies, comprising of ponds and small lakes, in this village form
another source of income for the villagers by way of inland fisheries.
Unfortunately, the water-bodies are infested by water hyacinth and other
weeds. As these weeds make fishing difficult, they are harvested and left
along the embankment to decompose. This creates bad odour and breeding
of mosquitoes.
iii) Seliamedu: This location is about 12 krn south of downtown Pondicherry.
As in case of Abishegapakkam, the majority of populace in Seliamedu is
also engaged in farming.
2.0 GIST OF THE RESPONSE OF THE VILLAGERS
2.1 Kalapet and Pillaichavady
Problems encountered
i) In the initial stage the householders were not able to maintain
adequate moisture levels in the compost boxes. They either added
too much water causing putrefaction, or too little water impeding
the composting. But soon they got the 'feel' of the water
requirement as we monitored the moisture levels in the reactors
with reference to the number of pails of water the householders
were adding and the time-span between such additions.
ii) In the initial stages there were occasions when the householders
omitted to agitate the contents when it became due (as indicated
by the fall in temperature of the under-cornposting substrate after a
rise). But gradually such lapses were also eliminated.
2.2 Abishegapakkam
When we started worrking at Abishegapakkam we learnt that in that village,
'cornposting' has been traditionally done by piling up household refuse and
cowdung in large heaps, topped with soil. The heaps are left unattended for
154

about an year and the resulting 'compost' is then used as a fertilizer
supplement. This practice is clearly sub-optimal.
We have tried to encourage the householders to do composting round the
year (Plate3) in used packing boxes so that larger quantities of different
substrates can be composted and utilized round the year.
Initially, composting was started in about 5-6 households. Later about 17
households joined in the initiative.
The various wastes used for the study at different sites are depicted in Figure 2
At the beginning verrnicomposting was done in pits lmx0.5mx0.5m dug
underground. Vermibeds were prepared by filling the pits from below to the
top with a layer of broken bricks, followed by 20 cm of sand and 30 cm of
garden soil. After the vermibeds were moistened, 200-250 locally collected
earthworms- Lampito mauritii and Perionyx excavatus - were introduced. On
top of the vermibed, the compost earlier obtained from one or the other
substrate was applied as feed for the earthworms. The vermibed was kept
moist by sprinkling water when required. The vermicast generated was
harvested once in 10 days (Plate 4).
Problems encountered
i) Once a composting process is set in motion, the contents of the substrate
undergoing composting should get heated up due to the thermophilic
nature of the aerobic fermentation. If the composting occurs efficiently, the
temperature of the contents should rise upto 60'~. Such rise in
temperature helps in killing most pathogens and may also inactivate
seeds of harmful plants such as weeds. But when the composting units
were set up at Abishegapakkam, adequate rise in temperature didn't
occur. We then advised the householders to cover the compost boxes
with plastic sheets to assist insulation. This more significantly helped in
attaining higher temperature during composting than were occurring in
uncovered boxes.

Plate 4 l-:.~:i~i:st~n;] of vcrrrilcornposi fol fleio ap:il~ial~f)~~ at a Iiouse!:i $.

ii) At one of the sites where water hyacinth compost had been applied to
fertilize tomato plants already grown to a fair height, the plants wilted and
died. This led to great apprehension in the minds of the farmers that
composffvermicompost generated from water hyacinth and other weeds
might be toxic to plants.
In order to check whether it is indeed so we conducted systematic studies on
the impact of water hyacinth composVvermicompost on different species of
plants as described earlier in Part V. The studies confirmed that water
hyacinth compost as well as vermicompost are actually beneficial to plant
growth. Further investigations on the case of wilting of the tomato plants
revealed that the phytotoxicity had occurred due to a toxic run-off from a
small-scale dyeing unit.
iii) When vermicomposting was done in pits dug underground the
earthworms tended to migrate away from the pits. To prevent this, cloth
nylon mesh was put just above the dug surface. Over the mesh, the
vermibed was prepared and the earthworms were released there.
iv) Another problem faced was the flooding of water into the vermipit during
rains. Hence small bunds made of bricks were built around the vermipits.
Therefore we advocated that vermicomposting be preferably done in
wooden cases.
The substrates being composted at different sites are depicted in Figure 3
Problems encountered
i) There was an initial fear that some such special skills are involved in
composting1vermicomposting which the villagers didn't possess. The fear
was caused by the requirement to read the thermometer (in order to know
when to stir the substrate)! But the fear was overcome because the

Seliamedu
v v
Weeds MSW Agricultural wastes Litter
I I
Figure 3 Various substrates studied at different sites; the character 'S' with the site numbers denotes Seliamedu

children of the houses came forward to learn the 'intricacy' and soon the
fear was overcome at all levels.
ii) Teething troubles, similar to the ones described in case of other locations,
were encountered in Seliamedu as well. But they were overcome soon
enough. The one notable difference was a marked show of disinterest
when we initially approached the Seliamedu villagers to take to
compostinglvermicomposting. It took some convincing but by and by the
disinterest gave way to pro-active enthusiasm.
3.0 OBSERVATIONS AT VARIOUS SITES
3.1 Temperature
The normal pattern after a composting unit is set up is that aerobic
fermentation causes gradual degradation of the biodegradable portion of the
carbonaceous organic compounds contained in the substrate. The process is
exothermic and lifts the temperature of the contents to above ambient. In
efficiently occurring composting process, the reactors may reach upto 60'~.
Then, as the oxygen entrained in the substrate is significantly depleted, and
becomes limiting, the rate of composting slows down which causes a fall in
temperature from its peak value. At that stage the covers of the reactor are
removed, the contents stirred, and covered again. This triggers the second
cycle of composting as the reactants get warmed up again and the reactor
temperature gradually rises to another peak. After about 3 weeks of these
cycles occurring again and again, usually at 3-5 day intervals, the composting
is complete and further stirring and covering does not lead to further rise in
temperature.
Similar pattern of 'temperature waves' were observed in all the composting
efforts at the three locations, though the peak temperatures differed from
substrate to substrate (Figures 4,5,10,11). We believe that if the composting is
done in properly sealed reactors, with correct proportion of inoculum
(cowdung) and the substrate, and with moisture maintained at optimum levels
with rigorous controls, easily attainable. In case of the composting done by the

villagers, the entire operation only broadly approximated the ideal.
Considering this, the results obtained may be deemed rather good.
The average pH value of the compost obtained at the end of the pmcess with
water hyacinth as substrate from different sites was 7.1 in Abishegapakkam
and 7.3 in Seliamedu (Figures 5,12). The compost of the other weed,
lpomoea had pH 7.4 (Figure 12). In the systems with mango (Mangifera
indica) leaf litter as substrate, the pH value was 7.4 and 7.5 at
Abishegapakkam and Seliamedu respectively (Figures 6,12). The
corresponding pH values for Thespesia (Thespesia populnea) leaf litter were
7.4 and 7.6 in Abishegapakkam (Figures 6,13). The compost obtained with
MSW as substrate had average pH 7.2 and 7.6 (Figure 7). The hay compost
had an average pH of 6.8 and 7.5 in Abishegapakkam and Seliamedu
respectively; whereas it was 8.0 in the case of sugarcane trash in Seliamedu
(Figure 7,13).
The contents of all the composting units showed pH not less than 5.9
throughout the process indicating that the contents had not undergone
putrefaction and no appreciable amounts of troublesome organic acids were
apparently produced.
According to Jimenez & Garcia (1989), mature compost generally has a pH
value between 7 and 8; it was within this range that the pH of all the compost
obtained in the three locations eventually laid.
3.3 C:N ratio
Composting is essentially an aerobic fermentation process in which
biodegradable organic compounds are metabolized by aerobes. In the
process, some of the carbon is lost to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide
which is generated by microbial respiration. On the other hand the nitrogen
present in the substrate remains bound as the substrate is composted. Due to
these factors, the C:N ratio of a substrate goes down during composting. The

change in the C:N ratio as the composting proceeds from start to finish can
even be used as an indicator of the efficacy of the composting.
What should be the C:N ratio of an ideal compost? Opinions vary; different
workers have deemed different C:N ratio as ideal, as summarized below:
Recommendation on the C: N ratio
of a compost
Should be in the range 15-25
Should be less than 22
Should be lower than 20
Should be close to 15
Mathur et al; 1993
Canet and Pomares; 1995
Zucconi and Bertoldi; 1987
Clarion et al; 1982
Juste; 1980
It can be said that C:N ratio of a compost should not be too high, as an
application of such composts can result in immobilization of available nitrogen,
causing an N - deficiency in plants (Kostov et al 1991, Bannick 8. Joergensen,
1993). Conversely, CIN values of composts must not be too low, as N -
mobilization and subsequent N - toxification and efflux to ground water may
occur ( Jimenez & Alvarez, 1993; Brink, 1995).
Extended composting periods will reduce long-term N - availability, primarily
since as composting proceeds a higher proportion of N will be converted to
available, organic forms, either within the microbial biomass or incorporated
into developing humic acid substances (Keeling et a/, 1994). In the former
case, release of N is dependent upon microbial death or predation by grazing
protozoa and nematodes. in the latter, humic substances are relatively
recalcitrant, having a high half-life within the soil, thus requiring longer to
release nitrogen (Keeling et a/, 1995).
In Abishegapakkam, the water hyacinth compost had an average CIN ratio
of 19.3 whereas it was 19.6 in Seliamedu (Figures 8,14). The compost of the
other weed @omoea had an average ratio of 22.7 in Seliamedu (Figure 14).

The MSW compost had higher C:N of 22.9 and 23.6 in Abishegapakkam and
Selimedu respectively (Figure 9). As for the leaf litter composts, the one from
Mangifera had a ratio of 22.5 and 22.7; whereas Thespesia compost had CIN
22.5 and 22.7 at Abishegapakkam(Figure 8) at the composting locations. The
hay compost had a C:N ratio of 24.6 at Abishegapakkam and 22.3 in
Seliamedu. The sugarcane trash compost had CIN 22.1 (Figure 9, 15).
The C: N ratio obtained in our studies fall within the range 19.3-24.6, in most
cases it is between 22 and 23. It is by and large in conformity with the
recommendations of Zucconi and Bertoldi (1987), Mathur et a1 (1993) and
Canet and Pomares (1 995).
References
Bannick, C.G., and Joergensen, R.G., 1993. Changes in N fractions during
composting of wheat straw. Biol.Fertil.Soils 16 369-374.
Brink, N., 1995. Composting of food waste with straw and other carbon
sources for nitrogen catching. Acta Agric. Scand. Sect B. Soil Plant Sci, 45
118-123.
Canet, R., and Pomares F., 1995. Changes in physical, chemical and
physicochemical parameters during the composting of municipal solid wastes
in two plants in Valencia. Bioresource Technology, 51, 259-264.
Clarion, M., Zinsou, C., and Nagoud, D..,1982. Etude deu posibilites d'
utilization agronomique des composts d'ordures menageres en milieu
tropical. I. Compostage des ordures menageres. Agronomie, 2 295-300.
Jimenez, E.,I and Alvarez, C.E., 1993. Apparent availability of nitrogen in
composted municipal refuse. Biol.Fe~iI.Soi1s 16 ,313-318.
Jimenez, E.I., and Garcia, V.P., 1989. Evaluation of city refuse compost
maturity: a review. Biological Wastes 27 115-42.
Juste, C., 1980. Avantages et inconvenients de I'utilisation des composts
d'ordures menageres comme ammendment organique des sols on support.
163

20 l - T - r , - T-T-1-,- ,-,-,-T - 7 - 7- -
-2
I 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37
Days
20 , , , , , > 3 1 7 v 7 - - -
: 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33
Days
20 L7--,
-T , , , , , , , , , , 7-77- -7-r-7 -,-r7--T-
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35
Days
Figure 4 Variation of temperature during the composting of (a) water hyacinth
(b) Mengifera indica and (c) Thespesie popuinea

20 -r7 r -v-7-mr-7 .
1
- 7 - TA
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35
Days
Figure 5 Variation of temperature during the composting of
(a) hay (b)MSW

5 10 l5 Days 20 25 30
+--..-- ,
5 10 25 30
l5 Days 20
1 2 3 4 5 6
Days
Figure 6 Variation of pH during the cornposting of (a) water hyacinth
(b) Thespesia populnea (c) Mangifera indica

50 1 I 1 - 1 I - $ 1
1 2 3 4 5 6
Days
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Days
Figure 7 Variation of pH during the compost~ng of (a) hay (b) MSW

Figure 8 CIN ratio of the composVvermicompost obtained from different sites
with (a) water hyacinth (b) Thespesia populnea Q Mangifera indica as substrates

compost vermicompost
Figure 9 CIN ratio of the cornpostlvermicornpost obtained from different
sites with (a) hay (b) MSW as subatrates

- - - - . , ,
I
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33
25-m , T T---T-, I .
Days
, , -1
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35
Days
25 1- - - , , ,
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 18 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35
Days
Figure 10 Variation of temperature during the cornposting of (a) water hyacinth
(b) lpomoea camea and (c) Mangifera indica

25 &T---- - -I F 7 -
, , , , , , . . A
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33
Days
25 ---7 - - - ,
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35
Days
7 r---1-_7-7 1 , - -7 r l
25 - - -.-,-- - -r-r- 1 l - - T - - J
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35
Days
Figure 11 Variation of temperature during the cornposting of (a) sugarcane trash
(b) hay and (c) Thespesia populnea

5 0 --- --- + -,______ . , - , , -4
5 10 15 20 25 30
Days
501- 4 -- t -i--+
-- , , .- 4 -
5 10 15 20 25 30
Days
----------+ - -, - 1
5 10 15 20 25 30
Days
Figure 12 Variation of temperature during the cornposting of (a) water hyacinth
(b) lpomoea crassipes (c) Thespesia populnea

50+ - - -+- .+. .-A
5 10 15 20 25 30
Days
50L .,----i-- -t----r-------. i -i---i
5 10 15 20 25
Days
Figure 13 Variation of temperature during the composting of (a) sugarcane
trash b) hay (c) Thespesia populnea

Figure 14 C/N ratio of the compost/vermicompost obtained from different sites with (a)
water hyacinth (b) lpomoea camea Q Mangifera indica as substrates

I --
Ocompost averm~compost
Figure 15 CIN ratio of the composffvermicompost obtained from different sites with (a)
sugarcane (b) hay 0 Thespesia populnea as substrates
I
,

Paper presented at the Jornadas lnternacionaies sobre el compost
conference, Madrid.
Keeling, A. A., Mullett, J. A. J and Paton, I.K., 1994. GC-Mass spectrometry of
refuse-derived composts. Soil. Biol.Biochem, 26, 773-6.
Keeling, A. A., Griffiths, B.S., Ritz, K., and Myers, M.,1995. Effects of compost
stability on plant growth, microbiological parameters and nitrogen availability
in media containing mixed garden-waste compost. Bioresource technology 54
279-284 .
Kostov, O., Rankov, V., Atanacova, G., and Lynch, J.M., 1991. Decomposition
of sawdust and bark treated with cellulose-decomposing microorganisms,
6/01. Fertil.'Soils I I 105-1 10..
Mathur, S.P., Owen, G., Dinel H., and Schitzer,M.,1993. Determination of
compost biornaturity I. Literature review. Biol. Agric. Horticulture, 10, 65-85.
Scott, J.,196l.Refuse separation and cornposting in edinburgh. Compost Sci
.2(3) 7.
Zucconi, F., and Bertoldi,M.,1987. Compost specifications for the production
and characterization of compost from municipal solid wastes. In: Compost :
Production, Quality and Use. Ed. M de Bertoldi M.P, Ferranti, P.L. Hermite
and F. Zucconi. Elsevier Applied Science London, 30-50.

Chapter 19
Collection and treatment of municipal solid waste (MSW) at
Pondicherry University campus
An attempt was made to process the municipal solid waste generated at the
Pondicherry University staff quarters.
The staff quarters comprise of about 40-50 residents. There is no proper
method of processing or disposing the municipal solid waste generated. Once
the trash bins were filled, some volunteers (residents) dried the waste and burnt
it. Due to this, apart from creating air pollution, the waste gets scattered
everywhere and creates an unhealthy and unaesthetic environment. Therefore
attempts were made to process the MSW generated, by subjecting the
biodegradable fraction to composting I vermicomposting and the non-degradable
fraction is sent for recycling.
In order to collect the biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes separately,
a pair of trash bins was provided at each location (a pair for every 6 quarters).
One was coded green and the other red (Platel). Circulars giving the details
were distributed to the residents, in addition to door-to door discussion, with
proper details regarding the purpose of two bins. The summary of the message
circulated and explained is as follows.
In general wastes can be divided into two categories - biodegradable and non-
biodegradable. Biodegradable wastes are those wastes, which are degradable
by the microorganisms, and non-biodegradable wastes are those that are non-
degradable or those that take a longer period to degrade. Biodegradable waste
such as kitchen wastes, paper, fruit peels, litter etc were directed to be thrown
.into the bins painted green whereas non biodegradable waste such as plastics,
metals, glass etc were to be thrown Into the bins coded red.

Once in a week, the waste was collected. The biodegradable and non-
biodegradable wastes were collected separately from all the bins. The waste was
collected in large polythene bags, transported and processed in the experimental
site.
1.0 Segregation of wastes
In spite of providing two bins with code marking, in some trash bins the waste
consisted of both biodegradable and non-biodegradable categories. Hence,
segregation became a prerequisite step before subjecting the waste to
composting. Waste was segregated manually (Plate 2). The non-biodegradable
waste consisting of plastics, glass, tins, etc were sent for recycling and the
biodegradable waste was subjected to composting and then vermicomposted.
2.0 Processing of Waste
The biodegradable fraction of the MSW was composted aerobically. The
compost generated was further subjected to vermicomposting. Composting was
done in larger cementlfiberglass tanks, wooden boxes or plastic containers
(Plate3). The container was filled with 10 cm layer of MSW, followed by 5 cm
layer of cowdung slurry, over which a thin layer of garden soil was sprinkled. The
MSW layer, cowdung slurry and the sprinkled soil constitute a unit. Several units
were made one above the other. Once the container got filled, a thick layer of soil
was laid as a final layer. Moisture content was maintained at 50 %. Temperature
was recorded everyday. Whenever there was fall in temperature, the contents
were turned (mixed) thoroughly for aeration. The MSW turned into humus like
compost in 4-5 weeks.
The compost is a good soil conditioner. To enhance its value as manure, and
for further refining, the compost was subjected to vermicomposting (Plate 4). The
vermicompost obtained is better then the compost in the sense that it has

Plate 3 Cc~nlmst~rlg of the collected waste a: tni ,lrocesslng si!e
Plate 4 Srev~ng of the harvested verni,ii ~,il:ost

enzymes and hormones required for plant growth, besides NPK in plant available
form.
3.0 Problems encountered
1. As mentioned earlier, inspite of providing two bins separately for
biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes, the bins were found to have both
the wastes mixed. It was observed that the biodegradable waste was separated,
but put in polythene bags and thrown in the bins meant for biodegradable waste.
Hence, segregation became essential
2. As the b'ins were kept open, the waste was scattered due to wind. Moreover,
crows, dogs and cattle, trying to feed from the bin, pulled the waste out and
scattered it. To avoid this the bins were covered with metal mesh.

A Waste management project involving engineers and scientists
of a university, a voluntary (non-governmental) organization, and
lay people -a case study
S.A. Abbasi, E.V. Ramasamy, S. Gajalakshmi, F.I. Khan, and Naseema Abbasi
Centre for Pollution Control & Energy Technology
Pondicherry University, Kalapet, Pondicherry 605 014
prof-abbasi@vsnl.com
Abstract
The authors have been associated with a solid-waste management project
which involves researchers specializing in varlous branches of engineering and
science, social scientists of a voluntary (non-governmental) organization, and
householders - including farmers. The paper describes why the team of this
composition came together, how it has gone about its task, and what has been
the outcome.
This transdisciplinary effort began with the need to control the growing pollution
at Pondicherry due to biodegradable solid wastes (including municipal waste,
aquatic weeds like water hyacinth, and paper waste). The governmental
agencies are unabie to cope with the increasing generation of such waste. No
funds or support in other forms are forthcoming from any other source, either, to
tackle this problem. In this background the authors began studies with the help
of doctoral research associates, and post-doctoral scientists, to
composffvermicompost different types of solid waste encountered in
Pondicherry. Chemical engineers, environmental engineers, zoologists, and
ecologists were brought together to find swift and inexpensive ways of achieving
the objective. Attempts were specifically directed towards developing such
simple and inexpensive systems, which can be used by, lay people and which
are remunerative enough to enthuse public participation. To ensure this,
farmers and several other low-incomelmiddle-income families were assoc~ated
for actually trying out the know-how we were developing and giving us
Reproduced from the Proceedings of the First Transdisciplinanty Conference,
Zurich, 2000

constant feedback on how to make the know-how exceedingly easy-to-use
and lucrative. A voluntary non-governmental organization named FREED
(Foundation for Research on Energy, Environment and Development) also got
associated with the project to act as a conduit between the researchers and the
end-users.
In this paper, details of these experiences are presented and the various
positive (and some negative) aspects of this approach have been catalogued.
Ways and means to stimulate transdisciplinary R&D initiatives have also been
identified.
Introduction
As mentioned in the preceding section, this project was driven by need-of-the-
hour. Transdisciplinarity became essential due to this need, rather than by any
other factor - such as compulsion of the authorities or prevailing fashion.
We realized that unlike industrial waste which is produced from clearly
identifiable point sources, and is regulated by governmental agencies, solid
waste is generated by everyone. Further, due to increasing population
pressure on the land, and ever increasing loads of waste generated
every minute of the day, it has become well-neigh impossible for the
governmental agencies to cope with the problem. The only way in which
solid waste can be managed is to find ways and means of utilizing such
waste at household level and by very simple technology.
Composting and Vermicomposting
We identified composting and vermicomposting as the two potentially useful
options for the following reasons :
a) The processes are easy to control and require no greater skill than is need
to cook a normal Indian meal. These processes are, thus, appropriate for
use at household level where housewives not trained in science (some not
even fully literate) can also operate reactors based on composting and
vermicomposting.

) The processes require no more sophisticated 'equipment' than discarded fruit-
packing boxes, shovels, and plastic sheets. This, again, makes these processes
ideal for use at household level and makes it possible to enthuse even very low-
income families to take them up.
c) The raw materials (biodegradable wastes) are generated at the place of use;
the end products - vermicastings - have an eager market.
The Need for R&D
Composting, per se, is a well-known technology but the way it is conventionally
done in India, in large pits dug underground, imposes several constraints. A
family should have some land available to dig compost pits and the labour
involved in, digging such pits and churning the feed is hard enough to dissuade
most householders. In South India 'composting' is done by piling away
household refuse and cowdung in large heaps. Such heaps are left unattended
for about an year and the resulting 'compost' is then used as fertilizer
supplement in agriculture. The government-sponsored agency PASlC
(Pondicherry Agro Services and Industries Corporation) conducts composting in
a more scientific manner utilizing trenches dug below ground. But the time
taken by them to complete the composting process is 3 months. Such a
rate of composting calls for large land area and effort which is too prohibitive for
average householder.
For the reasons given above, it became necessary to conduct R&D so that
procedures for doing composting in a quick and convenient manner can be
developed. R&D also become necessary because the type of household waste
that comes out in Pondicherry is characteristic of the food and living
habits of the region in and around Pondicherry; it, therefore, is subtly
different from the household garbage produced elsewhere in India.
The Transdisciplinary Team
A team of professionals was pieced together to work on this project. The team
comprised of an environmental engineer (SAA), a biotechnologist (EVR), a
zoologist (SG), a chemical engineer (FIK), and a software engineer-curn-
social activist (NA). In order to make sure that the team does not drift towards

purely academic research involving ever increasing - but perhaps irrelevant
- sophistication, householders and farmers were directly associated with
the project. In fact they were made the reference point for all the work; the end
objective was set as developing such know-how which they can use to their
advantage.
The Know-how developed
The biggest priority of the team was to develope know-how for composting the
domestic waste quickly, efficiently, and inexpensively. To this end, several
blends of waste were studied so that appropriate nutrient balance needed
for swift and complete composting may be achieved. An example of the
successful blends is paper waste mixed with cowdung in a 5:l (dry weight) ratio.
Recognizing the limited availability of land making underground compost pits,
and even lesser inclination of the people to use such a methodology, we
developed composting units out of discarded fruit-packing boxes (to house
the waste) and black - coloured plastic sheets (to provide reasonable
insulation). The units were sized to achieve the optimality of 'maximum size at
maximum handling convenience'. The temperature of the feed was monitored
with ordinary thermometers poked in the feed. The temperature steadily rose in
all digesters to 60' C as composting took place. As soon as the temperature
began to fall, indicating fall of oxygen levels inside the reactor, the reactors were
opened and the contents churned. As composting is an aerobic process, this
scheme enabled the process to occur at maximum efficiency. Closing the
reactor thoroughly after each churning was necessary to prevent loss of process
heat. The reactors were, therefore, kept well-insulated by covering them with
black plastic sheets but at the same time oxygen was supplied to them (by
churning) whenever need for it was indicated by the fail in reactor temperature.
Conducted in this manner, composting was complete within 3 weeks, instead of
3 months or more taken by existing methods!
Direct Verrnicornposting
Parallel with the studies on 'high-rate composting' mentioned above, households
were also encouraged to directly use 'soft' waste such as spent tea leaves, and
vegetable and fruit peels for generating vermicompost. We helped them

articulate 'vermibeds' in which appropriate species of humus-feeder worms such
as Eudrilus eugeniae, Penonyx excavatus, Lampito mauritii and Drawida willsi
were cultured.The households had to simply put the waste on the vermibeds
and periodically collect vermicastings.
Vermicomposting of the composted waste
Whereas direct vermicomposting is adequate for certain types of 'soft' and
nutritious wastes which the earthworms can easily feed upon; other forms
of municipal solid waste such as paper clippings, weeds, cotton-bearing
waste is too hard for the earthworms to ingest. To process such waste
cornposting was found to be a much more cost-effective option than
vermicomposting. We took up R&D studies on imparting value-addition to the
compost by converting it to vermicompost. 'High-rate verrnicomposters' were
designed, tested, and operated -with direct involvement of the end users -
as detailed above.
The present status of the project
After an understandably slow start, the project is attracting an increasing number
of househo!ds and farmers. The popularity of the know-how developed by us is
thus far based entirely on word-of-mouth movement of information. After making
an impact in the villages near the authors' place of work, the know-how is being
gradually taken to other regions. Only after a significantly large number of
households have used the know-how successfully for several months, shall we
start publicizing it in the print and the electronic media. In terms of academic
output, too, the project hasn't done badly. A master's thesis (Sathianarayanan
1999) and a research paper (Ramasamy and Abbasi, 2000) have already come
out of it, with promise of some more!
Acknowledgement
The authors are grateful to All lnd/a Council for Technical Education, New Delhi,
for sponsoring the work pertaining to paper waste and Department of Science
and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi, for sponsoring the work
pertaining to water hyacinth.

References
Ramasamy, E.V., and Abbasi, S.A. (2000), Utilization of biowaste solids by
extracting volatile fatty acids with subsequent conversion to methane and
manure, J. Solid Waste Technology & Management, (USA) in press.
Sathianarayanan, A. (1999). Recycling of waste paper and agrowates, M.Phil
Thesis, Centre for Pollution Control & Energy Technology, Pondicherry
Un~vers~ty, 107 pages
, /--
i;
,