Abstract:
An increasing in urban population and changing of life style or cultural behavior leads to
rising need for consumption materials and raise in the amount and composition waste being
generated daily by each house hold. The increasing amount of municipal solid waste
generated as well as improper characterization and disposal of solid waste have high social,
economic and environmental impacts.
The aim of this study was to assess the current solid waste generation rate, characterization
and compositions of HHSW and waste transformation through vermicomposting. Acrosssectional study was conducted by using quantitative approaches and purposive sampling
technique was employed to select (ketena) and systematic sampling was used to select sefer in
each ketene and house hold. For 213 household surveys, sample size was determined using a
population proportional formula. The sampling of HHSW was conducted for consecutive 8
days and experimental set up for vermicomposting were preformed May-July/2018. Also
some material used for conduct research were plastic bins, weight balance, safety gloves, and
laboratory instrument (oven, polyethen, dissectors, soil crusher, spectoro photometer, flam
photometer, ASS, balance pH meter etc).
The results showed that solid waste generation rate of Asossa town was 0.144kg/cap/day and
the compositions by weight of the household solid waste were, Food waste (35.95%), Ash and
dust (18.8%), Leaves (12.69%), Wood (4.94%),Plastic, Catha edulis, Paper, Grasses, Glasses
metal and Textile account only 8.15%, 4%, 3.35%,8.19%, 0.40%, 0.76% and 2.65% waste
respectively. About 88% and 12% HHSW was bio-degradable and non-biodegradable
respectively. And mean results analysis of physicochemical parameters for mature or stable
compost found within the range of acceptable limits set by most countries guidelines except
C: N. Therefore, the researcher concluded that the town municipal should developed an
appropriate house hold SWM technology and implement to properly manage this high amount
of solid waste through vermicomposting technology. So the researcher recommended that by
using E. fetid a worm it can be produce good quality vermicompost in short period of time
and use as organic fertilizer to remediate soil.
