In the general discussion period that has now been started, I have a few
questions relating to economics of composting.
I do not know who of the very few people participating in this debate can
answer them, but I am optimistic.

1. It is reported in the paper that at the KCDC site, compost can be produced
at 41.55 dollars per ton, not including collection costs, and that the sales
price is 48.70 dollars per ton. So there appears to be a theoretical profit
of 7.15 dollars per ton.

My questions are:
How much does it cost to collect the organic material and take it to the
compost site?
How do you fix the sales price?
Is it just wishful thinking or is it based on some market research, or did
you identify the buyers of the compost and the price they are willing to pay?

2. The economic analysis presented in the paper is strictly reactive. You
calculate how much you have invested in your facility and how much it costs
to run it, and how much profit you want to make, and from this you figure a
sales price. Looks like standard engineering design practice from the 1980s.

My question is:
Have you ever considered using a proactive approach to figuring costs and
prices, like e.g. opportunity costs of landfills and pollution? This is or
will become standard practice in this millennium.

3) Two of the three sites described in the paper compost vegetable market
waste which by definition is pure organic material. Christine Furedy already
mentioned in one of her comments that there are many clients for this type of
waste in India and Kenya. I can say the same for Brazil. So why are we
worrying about it? It will take care of itself, and composting seems to be
the least frequent destination. As for household waste, organic material
makes up in excess of 70 weight percent of it, in India as well as in Brazil,
and therefore probably in many other southern countries.

My question is:
Would it not be more to the point of landfill diversion if we concentrated on
composting of household waste with correct opportunity cost accounting
methods, and leave the vegetable markets alone?

Thanks for the attention.
Manfred Fehr, Brazil