Sustainability and Transferability Potential of Home and Community Composting: The Study Case of Greece

With urbanization and the increased production of municipal solid waste (MSW), particularly the organic fraction, effective management of MSW poses a significant challenge for urban centers worldwide. Almost half of waste created is organic or biodegradable. Often winding up in landfills, it decomposes in the absence of oxygen and produces the greenhouse gas methane, which is more powerful than carbon dioxide. While many landfills include methane management, diverting organic waste to composting is more effective. Addressing this need, this work presents the concepts of home and community composting in waste management, and recent examples of community and home composting implementation, focusing on projects with sustainable impact. As case study, this paper analyzes the sustainability and transferability potential of four home and community composting initiatives taking place in Spain, Italy, Jordan, and Palestine, and their potential replication in Greece. A range of simulations is performed, where use cases and scenarios are estimated and comparatively analyzed on variables such as composter capacity, number of composters in the area, price per composter, as well as the cost of waste collection and waste treatment in the area. The benefit/cost index is defined and estimated for assessing economic, social, and environmental viability on the impact variables of alternative scenarios before and after placing the composter. Main findings indicate that sustainability and transferability of the community-based composting projects require the integration of the quadruple helix of community, government, business, and technology. The results can be integrated for combining the benefits of composting with urban agriculture, leading to new answers to recent social, economic, and ecological urban challenges.