Study on treatment of human waste using co-composting with agricultural waste toward to resource recovery

According to World Health Organization guidelines, human waste needs to be composted for 1–2 years before being reused. In Vietnam’s climatic conditions, along with the custom of adding fillers (lime, ash, etc.), the Ministry of Health has a requirement for hygienic latrines that human feces should be composted for at least 6 months to destroy pathogens before agriculture uses. In fact, not only in areas specializing in growing vegetables and crops, but also in rice growing areas, the above incubation period is not followed, so the risk of exposure is very high. This study evaluates the co-composting of waste from dry latrines using mixing methods to optimize decomposition and pathogen die-off. To shorten the composting time while still ensuring the safe reuse of excreta in agriculture, the study on the aerobic composting model combined with mixing waste from latrines with agricultural waste was taken place and shown that after 4 months of composting, the composted material is obtained, ensuring hygiene and safety according to the instructions in Circular 41/2014/TT-BNNPTNT on Regulations on main quality indicators and limiting factors in organic fertilizers and other fertilizers, reduced the required time by 2 months as recommended by the MOH and 8 months by the WHO.