Stabilization of sludge from AAVIN dairy processing plant (Chennai) using Vermicomposting

Land pollution has become a serious problem in the present scenario and resolving this issue is yet an other challenging task. Solid wastes contribute to seriou s threats on environmental hazards and it has becom e the need of the hour to develop sustainable methods in handling them by enhancing cleaner technologies in recyclin g and thereby creating safe environment adding organic fe rtility to soil. Dairy industry is an important sector in both the developed and developing nations and the pollutants from these consists of organic compounds with enor mous amounts of suspended solids, biochemical oxygen dem and and chemical oxygen demand along with nitrate compounds. The wastewater from dairy industries whe n dumped or land filled has various disadvantages o f being expensive occupying more open space resulting in po lluting the ground water and soil resources. In the present work, the dairy sludge from AAVIN industry, Chennai was stabilized by the technique of vermiconversion . Initially dairy sludge and cow dung of varying proportions of 1:2 and 2:2 were mixed and earthworms of two diffe rent species called Eisenia foetida and Eudrilus Eugenia were added to the contents for about 55 days to cr eate vermicomposting. The vermicomposted sludge exhibite d very good results in comparison to normal sludge and were added to the radish plants where they yielded good growth results.