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2.4 Topic c: Composting

Centralized composting has not been successful in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Pan American Health Organization estimates that in the last 20 years, at least 30 plants were purchased, some of which were never installed. Approximately 15 closed only a few years after installation. At the time of this review, one plant was reported in operation in São Paulo, Brazil. This plant is owned and subsidized by the municipal government of São Paulo, which is interested in its con-tinued operation due to the lack of landfill space in the metropolitan area. Four large composting plants operated in Mexico, but none of these is still working. Two others were purchased there, but were never installed.

There are a number of reasons why centralized compost plants have not been successful in the region, the most important one being the operating cost. Many of these plants were purchased without a feasibility study and without an existing market for the product. Municipalities, in general, cannot afford to subsidize these compost plants, particularly when cheaper (though less environmentally friendly) options are available. Also, due to deficient management, the plants that were put into operation were a public health problem.

Some community composting projects have been deemed Òsuccessful.Ó In most cases, however, these have been demonstration projects sponsored by NGOs or municipalities that wanted to create compost for parks and gardens. Would-be self-sustaining small-scale enterprises that sell compost are struggling.

Vermiculture (worm culture), which produces humus, appears to be more successful, since production times are much shorter (days vs. months) and the product has a wider market than compost. Successful cases have been reported in Colombia, Peru, and Cuba. Successful vermiculture is generally done at a very small scale, typically with five or six persons being involved. Vermiculture also benefits from the public perception that its product, humus, comes from "clean" vegetable waste, whereas compost comes from "garbage." This perception is probably right, in a way, since the main source of waste for vermiculture is market and agricultural wastes. Additionally, humus is richer in nutrients than is compost, and compost suffers from worse quality control problems.

There have been some pilot trials of anaerobic digestion of wastes. Although the process was shown to be technically feasible, its cost-effectiveness was not demonstrated. As a result, it was never implemented.

Backyard composting is done in rural areas and poorer areas of cities. The compost is used in the householdsÕ vegetable plots.

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