Waste Management & Research

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Tomati, U.
Right arrow Articles by De Simone, C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Tomati, U.
Right arrow Articles by De Simone, C.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
Waste Management & Research, Vol. 20, No. 5, 389-397 (2002)

Evaluation of commercial compost quality

Umberto Tomati

Istituto di Biologia Agroambientale e Forestale, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Area della Ricerca di Roma, Via Salaria Km 29,300; 00016 Monterotondo Scalo (Roma) Italy

Monica Belardinelli

Istituto di Biologia Agroambientale e Forestale, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Area della Ricerca di Roma, Via Salaria Km 29,300; 00016 Monterotondo Scalo (Roma) Italy

Monica Andreu

Istituto di Biologia Agroambientale e Forestale, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Area della Ricerca di Roma, Via Salaria Km 29,300; 00016 Monterotondo Scalo (Roma) Italy

Emanuela Galli

Istituto di Biologia Agroambientale e Forestale, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Area della Ricerca di Roma, Via Salaria Km 29,300; 00016 Monterotondo Scalo (Roma) Italy

Donatella Capitani

Istituto di Metodologie Chimiche CNR, Area della Ricerca di Roma, Via Salaria Km 29,300; 00016 Monterotondo Scalo (Roma) Italy

Noemi Proietti

Istituto di Metodologie Chimiche CNR, Area della Ricerca di Roma, Via Salaria Km 29,300; 00016 Monterotondo Scalo (Roma) Italy

Claudio De Simone

Istituto Sperimentale per lo Studio e la Difesa del Suolo: Sezione di Conservazione del Suolo.Via Casette 1; Rieti, Italia

Ten commercial composts were evaluated on the basis of chemical, physical and biological characteristics and compared with a compost produced by a safe matrix in controlled conditions.

FT-IR spectra, 13C CP-MAS NMR spectra and molecular weights were also assayed on humic acids extracted from the composts. The results show that the origin of the starting materials affects the quality of the end products especially for their heavy metal content and genotoxic effect. The presence of a high percentage of low molecular weight fractions generally recorded in the humic acids from commercial composts could be due to uncorrected composting process. FT-IR and 13C CP-MAS NMR spectra agree with functional group assignments, characterising the level of humification. The results show that commercial composts can display harmful properties probably due to the origin of the starting material, therefore a regulation about both compost production and characterisation should be suitable.

Key Words: compost • humic acids • molecular weight • FT IR spectra • 13C CP-MAS NMR spectra • genotoxicity • wmr 557-3.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?