Recycling of Urban Organic Waste for Urban Agriculture
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Recycling of Urban Organic Waste for Urban Agriculture
Sustainable management of solid waste is a major challenge being faced by municipal authorities across the world,
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both in the North and the South. In developing countries, urban waste remains a serious problem that causes contamination of soil and water bodies and endangers human health and the environment.
Much of the solid waste consists of organic matter that can be recycled into a profitable input (compost) for urban agriculture. Composting the large quantities of organic matter provides a win-win strategy by reducing waste flows, enhancing soil properties, recycling valuable soil nutrients and creating livelihoods, but there remain several constraints that explain why this opportunity is seldom exploited.
This chapter discusses the benefits of constraints to composting and presents a framework for analysis and planning of composting interventions. The arguments and models contained in the chapter are supported with case study material from Ghana, Philippines and Kenya.
The Urban Waste Challenge
The accelerated growth of the global urban population implies an increasing demand for public services. Yet, urban centres in developing countries are unable to meet such demand � services such as sanitation are poor or inadequate to cope with the increasing rates of urbanisation and the associated higher standards of living.
According to the UN 2002 Human Development Report, 2.4 billion people in the developing world lack access to basic sanitation. In Africa, Asia and Latin America, the sustainable management of waste is a major challenge for municipal authorities.
Waste is a product or material that does not have a value anymore for the first user and is therefore thrown away; however, it could have value for another person in a different circumstance or even in a different culture (van de Klundert and Anschutz, 2001).