ABSTRACT
Composting and anaerobic digestion (AD) represent the two general technologies which account for the majority of separate biological treatment of solid waste. The growth of biotechnology is likely to have major implications for waste management, beyond the development of new and better systems of direct biowaste processing. Natural drawbacks have led some to examine the potential of other approaches to biological waste treatment, based on alternative technologies. One alternative which has been explored by a number of companies and researchers across the world is the use of annelid worms to breakdown biowaste, a method widely known as worm composting or vermicomposting. Eutrophic fermentation would seem to have some merit as a potential alternative to both AD and composting for certain biowaste treatment applications. In the future, it may be that ethanol production from biowaste will form the first stage of a treatment train with some form of final aerobic amelioration, in an integrated process, based at a single site.
