Quality evaluation of composts in the Greek market

Paper ID: 
cest2021_00802
Topic: 
Biowaste
Published under CEST2021
Proceedings ISBN: 978-618-86292-1-9
Proceedings ISSN: 2944-9820
Authors: 
(Corresponding) GYPARAKIS S., MARAGKAKI A., MANIOS T.
Abstract: 
In recent years, many composting products of various organic residues have been placed on the Greek market. Some of the benefits of composting, in addition to protecting the environment, are saving money, reducing wastes, improving soil quality and further complying with EU environmental rules. The main purpose of this study is to present the results of a recent online market survey of compost products on the Greek market. Also, it was assessed the quality and the agronomic characteristics of compost products or products marketed as such. Physical and chemical parameters (moisture, organic matter, electrical conductivity, pH and concentration of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium), listed on the labels of the products, were statistical processed for the quality and agronomic evaluation of the compost products. The largest amount of commercial compost products comes from composting solid household waste residues (32%). 61.90% of the market survey compost samples have a sum of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), greater than 3%. The pH value ranges from 7.0 to 7.5 at the 54.55% of the samples, the conductivity equal to 2,0 mS/cm at 41.67% of the samples and organic matter equal to 40% have the 27.78% of the samples. Results revealed wide variations even within the same group of products. The high variability of such important parameters in composts available in the Greek market suggests an urgent need for establishing quality assurance procedures and mechanisms in the country.
Keywords: 
compost, quality, agronomic, evaluation, environment, organic matter