Regional circular economy implications of composting seasonal municipal biowaste for resource recovery and peat replacement

Regional circular economy implications of composting seasonal municipal biowaste for resource recovery and peat replacement | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Regional circular economy implications of composting seasonal municipal biowaste for resource recovery and peat replacement Himanshu Himanshu, Felix Stadler, Mirco Friedrichs, Felix Mayer, and 4 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8497151/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Separately collected municipal biowaste is central to regional circular economy implementation under the revised Waste Framework Directive, yet system design and planning are still often based on annual averages that obscure month-resolved constraints and opportunities. This study developed a month-resolved workflow that integrates daily inflow records with repeated reception sampling, manual fraction sorting and laboratory characterisation over one full year at a regional treatment hub in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and translates these data into operational and market-relevant indicators for composting systems. Daily inflow included non-operating days and reached 352 t wet d − 1 , while monthly inflow ranged from 3,007 to 5,648 t wet. Composition varied strongly, with food waste ranging from 1.45 to 34.84% and garden-related fractions from 2.30 to 94.02%, while non-organic material ranged from 0 to 32.03%, indicating episodic contamination events. On a total solids basis, carbon ranged from 31.79 to 42.11% and nitrogen from 1.38 to 1.83%, with an annual mean carbon to nitrogen ratio of 22.6. Scenario translations expressed monthly outputs as humus carbon potential and as market-facing volumes, with growing media support of 5,269 to 10,686 m 3 month − 1 and peat displacement of 2,160 to 4,381 m³ month − 1 , supporting coordinated regional planning across collection design, facility capacity and market linkages. By translating biowaste variability into market-relevant volumes and substitution potentials, the study supports economic decision making for regional value chains, including compost utilisation in growing media and partial replacement of fossil peat. Source separated biowaste seasonal variability composting feedstock elemental composition peat substitution Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8497151","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":568135826,"identity":"1a73464d-34e6-4928-84ca-67d1d36651bd","order_by":0,"name":"Himanshu 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seasonal municipal biowaste for resource recovery and peat replacement\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research 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This study developed a month-resolved workflow that integrates daily inflow records with repeated reception sampling, manual fraction sorting and laboratory characterisation over one full year at a regional treatment hub in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and translates these data into operational and market-relevant indicators for composting systems. Daily inflow included non-operating days and reached 352 t wet d\u003csup\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;1\u003c/sup\u003e, while monthly inflow ranged from 3,007 to 5,648 t wet. Composition varied strongly, with food waste ranging from 1.45 to 34.84% and garden-related fractions from 2.30 to 94.02%, while non-organic material ranged from 0 to 32.03%, indicating episodic contamination events. On a total solids basis, carbon ranged from 31.79 to 42.11% and nitrogen from 1.38 to 1.83%, with an annual mean carbon to nitrogen ratio of 22.6. Scenario translations expressed monthly outputs as humus carbon potential and as market-facing volumes, with growing media support of 5,269 to 10,686 m\u003csup\u003e3\u003c/sup\u003e month\u003csup\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;1\u003c/sup\u003e and peat displacement of 2,160 to 4,381 m\u0026sup3; month\u003csup\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;1\u003c/sup\u003e, supporting coordinated regional planning across collection design, facility capacity and market linkages. By translating biowaste variability into market-relevant volumes and substitution potentials, the study supports economic decision making for regional value chains, including compost utilisation in growing media and partial replacement of fossil peat.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Regional circular economy implications of composting seasonal municipal biowaste for resource recovery and peat replacement","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-01-05 01:52:45","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8497151/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"b9710507-753c-4b10-9157-4d6cb4374853","owner":[],"postedDate":"January 5th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-01-05T01:52:45+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-01-05 01:52:45","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8497151","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8497151","identity":"rs-8497151","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}