Ottimizzazione del processo di trattamento di sottovaglio del TMB e del digestato mediante sistemi di lombricoltura

Waste recycling is a key issue in the European policy for the transition to a sustainable economic system. In this context, the recycling of organic wastes is becoming of great relevance considering that global waste is expected to grow to 3.40 billion tonnes by 2050, approximately 45% of which is organic waste. Given the high proportion of organic matter and nutrient rich profile in organic wastes, these seem suitable for recycling in agricultural applications. Vermicomposting is one of the processes that can be applied to transform organic materials in nutrient-rich compost. Indeed, vermicomposting of organic waste has received increasing worldwide research attention, as demonstrated by the bibliometric analysis reported in Appendix A. On the basis of the scientific results obtained (see Appendix B), vermicomposting is now considered a promising and sustainable technology for the recycling of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste and anaerobic digestate from agricultural and industrial wastes. Some large-scale facilities have already been installed. For example, in January 2021, a state-of-the-art vermicompost facility that can convert 90 tonnes of solid waste into about 24 tonnes of compost was inaugurated on the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) campus in India. Thanks to its properties, vermicomposting could permit to achieve three important societal goals: 1.reduction of waste that ends up in landfills; 2.recycling of waste through the production of a rich "humus; 3.reduction of the use of inorganic fertilizers which are known to furnish readily available nutrients but, at the same time, have negative effects on the soil's physico-chemical and microbial properties and on the environment. Furthermore, the production of vermicompost in a waste management facility allows it to expand its commercial offer with the marketing of the compost and worms exploiting their high reproduction capacity.