File:Composting facility, general view (7825750650).jpg

Technology Composting is performed manually inside a shed using nine bays. The material in the bays is shifted two times in a week from one bay to the next. After having gone through the bays, the compost is sieved and matured for another month, making the total processing time about two months.

Capacity The facility has a capacity of about 700 Kg of biodegradable organic waste per day, producing about 170 Kg of compost per day.

Investment Costs Compost facility: about 18 mil. UGX incl. a hut for the personnel, a toilet, and fencing Push carts: about 700 000.- UGX per piece incl. appropriate garbage containers, at least three pieces are required. Scale and tools : about 300 000.- UGX Total: say 21 mil. UGX incl. contingencies.

Operation The facility is located near the new market and operated by a private operator. An expected three waste collectors will be collecting waste from the new market and residents of the immediate neighborhood in specifically designed pushcarts. Traders and residents are requested to separate their waste into the organic and the non-biodegradable fractions. Solid residues from ecological sanitation toilets are also targeted and included into the organic waste fraction. The facility is expected to break even at a selling price of about 150.- UGX per Kg of compost. This includes 18.- UGX per Kg of fresh and properly sorted organic waste as a payment to the waste collectors.

Benefits •Disposal and utilization of biodegradable organic solid waste •Production of high quality compost for agricultural and horticultural uses •Inclusion and adequate disposal of biosolids from ecosan toilets

Environmental Threats Leachates emanating from the organic waste are collected in a small pit and reused in the process. Slight odors of decomposing organic material are expected. These are not expected to be a significant nuisance.

Problems (so far) The construction of the facility has been delayed by many months for various reasons: an underestimation of the required funds, bad weather, lack of commitment on the part of the Town Council and the engineer in charge of construction, bad conditions of the access roads, a neighbor who is opposing the facility and trying to block it. Up to this moment, the water tank of the water harvesting system is leaking and the site has not been properly prepared. The new market, from which waste is supposed to be derived from, is still not being used. The facility has thus started with waste from the old market which is located much further away from the composting facility. In a major theft, most of the bins and tools of the composting facility and some of the bins deployed at the market have been stolen. The cooperation from market vendors has been poor, and accordingly the separation of the organic waste by some of the traders has been poor.