Solid waste characterization and treatment technologies in rural areas: An Indian and international review

Abstract Solid waste generation and treatment become one of the main concerns for the rural area. This article reviews the solid waste composition and various solid waste treatment technologies in the rural areas of India and other countries. The solid waste generated in a rural area containing more than 50% of organic waste and rest inorganic. Waste generation rate is 0.3-0.9 kg/capita/day in various rural areas of different countries. Agriculture waste and animal waste are the major components of the organic fraction. Because of the organic nature of waste, composting is the most feasible technology of treating solid waste in the rural area. The review article also focused on various factors which may affect the process of composting and helpful for selecting composting technology as moisture content, C/N ratio, turning frequency, particle size, aeration rate, and temperature. Optimum values of these parameters are found that the optimum moisture content is (45%–60%), suitable temperature (45–70 °C), turning frequency (7–15 days/turning) and C/N ratio (25–30). This paper also contains various treatment technologies for the organic solid waste which are based on composting and anaerobic digestion.