Physico- Chemical characteristics of compost (Cotonou, Benin, West Africa)

Abstract

This work was led the town of Cotonou in Benin and particularly on the vegetable garden site of Houéyiho. It involved the valorization of the waste of this site by proceeding the aerobic composting of the biodegradable fraction of municipal solid waste collected in the markets. This consists among other rotten fruits of various plant debris and garbage obtained by initial sorting. After three months of biological decomposition, 48,531.78 kg of biodegradable waste was composted with a yield of 40,443.33 kg of fresh compost or approximately 83.33% compost. The moisture content of the biodegradable fraction is 65%. The physico-chemical characteristics of compost produced are as follow: 12.7594 ± 0.1006 mg / kg of heavy metals, the C / N ratio is 13% and the rate of total phosphorus is 0.34% and 61.18 meq/100 g of Dry Weight exchangeable bases. The humus of our compost has a high capacity of cationic exchange (CCE) and fixed mineral nutrient ions such as K⁺ and Ca²⁺ and phosphate in order to make them available for plant growth and development and proving the poverty of the soil of this site and their increased need of organic amendment.

Keywords: Cotonou; biodegradable waste; compost; physico- chemical characteristics; poor soil