论文信息 - DOES AS4454 ADEQUATELY BENCHMARK COMPOST QUALITY

DOES AS4454 ADEQUATELY BENCHMARK COMPOST QUALITY

Summary Analysis of 52 different garden organics end-products showed that the Victorian limit for copper was exceeded on 46% of occasions, 63% of occasions for zinc and 50% of occasions for chromium. These data support the need for a revision of the heavy metal limits used in the Australian Standard for composts, soil conditioners and mulches (AS4454-1999). The extremely high variability in results for the nitrogen drawdown index (NDI) and wettability supports concern widely held about the poor reliability of these test methods. The carbon to nitrogen (C:N) ratio test was deleted in the current version of AS4454 and replaced by the NDI for those products which claim to contribute to plant nutrition. AS4454 needs continuing evaluation and refinement in order for it to grow in credibility and be adopted by the composting industry.

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