Government Printing Office, Washington, D. A study was therefore made of the status of com- posting and compost utilization in Germany, Holland, and Switzerland, and the findings were related to the solid wastes problem in America.
Nine compost plants are in operation in Germany, one-sixth of Holland's domestic refuse is made into compost, and Switzerland has an active composting program. Yet, in all three countries, composting is a very minor pathway for the disposal of solid wastes, and there are serious production costs and market- ing problems. These countries make only as much compost as can be sold; excess refuse from the communities is burned or buried.
Generally, compost can be sold only if it is well screened and of good appearance. There is simply no market for the compost in basic agriculture. This same approach to composting has also been attempted in the past in the United States. The results have been similar, though even less successful: The market in luxury agriculture has been smaller, and the cost of producing the compost has been greater.
There are possibilities, however, for a more satisfactory program of composting for solid waste disposal. Rough-quality compost, cheaply produced, without grinding or fine screening, has real potential for the reclamation of spoiled lands as from mining , for the prevention of erosion, for reduction of the volume of material going into a landfill, and as a cover material for above-grade landfills.
A further and even more favorable avenue of composting practice will be to consider land as an acceptor of compost rather than compost as a benefit to the land. Rough- quality compost might be applied at the max- imum assimilable rate perhaps tons per acre-year to a piece of land.
