Household-Scale Production of Vermicompost by Earthworm Eisenia fetida

Today, vermicompost production process as one of the very good procedures in terms of economic,health, and environmental sustainability to stabilize the organic waste is discussed. The aim of this study is vermicompost production from urban waste by earthworm (Eisenia Fetida) in Household-scale. In this experimental study, plastic tank of vermicompost production was first prepared, and then using the initial bed, soft soil, compostable waste, and Eisenia Fetida earthworms loading was attempted and after 30 and 90 days, sampling was carried out. In the samples, parameters such as, percent of organic matter, ash, pH, total carbon, total nitrogen, phosphorous, electrical conductivity and humidity was measured. The results showed the organic matter, ash, total carbon, and total nitrogen percentage, ratio of carbon to nitrogen, phosphorous percentage, electrical conductivity, moisture percentage and pH of ripe compost (90 days), 42% ± 2.8, 53% ± 0.17, 22% ± 0.17, 1.12% ± 0.003, 20 ± 0.25, 2.8% ± 0.26, 1200 ±200μs/cm, 56% ± 5.5 and 8.3± 0.2 repectively and all the parameters measured were consistant with the standards. Considering the results it can be concluded that home owners, by using simple local features, can produce vermicompost with high quality consisting of standards that, in terms of environmental and economic, status, greatly helps municipal solid-waste management system and causes reduction more than 60-70% of domestic waste at its orgin.