Production of fertilizer using food waste from cafeteria, UMKKJ

Cafeteria UMKKJ produced food wastes everyday and this caused a problem in waste management system. It used up a large amount of land, water and fertilizer only to be buried in a landfill. The food in landfill decomposes and emits methane gas which contribute to global warming. The food wastes such as vegetable waste, eggshell and chicken bone can be used to produce organic fertilizers that useful for farmers. Eggshell and chicken bone were cleaned, sterilized and turned into powder form by using blender whereas vegetable waste was mixed with sawdust in a bin for composting. Vegetable compost had the highest K content compared to chicken bone and eggshell at 425.87%, 39.16% and 17.49%. Eggshell had the highest P content followed by vegetable compost and chicken bone at 3.36%, 0.77% and 0.70% whereas chicken bone had the highest N content followed by vegetable compost and eggshell at 2.02%, 0.49% and 0.34%. These composts’ C:N ratio had between 5:1 and 30:1 which were 9.21, 14.45 and 18.60 for eggshell, vegetable compost and chicken bone. Different composition of fertilizers were applied to the key lime plants and the growth performance was observed and recorded. By applying the organic fertilizer, the plants grow better in terms of height, leaves, fruit and flower number, root growth and chlorophyll content. Based on the observation, soil with vegetable compost and eggshell in ratio of 0.5:0.5 (T2), vegetable compost and eggshell in ratio of 1:1 (T1) and vegetable compost, chicken bone and eggshell in ratio of 1:1:1 (T6) had better plant growth compared to control and other compost treatments (T0,T3,T4,T5 and T7).