The technique of composting is an essential element of an integrated waste management. This type of treatment is one of the few eco-validated technologies to improve the management of environmental resources and enhance the variety of biomass, as well as to recover organic matter to be used for agriculture, such as the Mediterranean one, which denotes a large deficit.

The composting of community involves the use of small electromechanical equipment for the treatment of municipal organic waste and for the recovery of the contained organic substance; the technique allows to control, accelerate and improve the biological / natural process taking place, in any organic fraction, by the microbial flora, so that the compost can be used in agronomic - environmental activities.

ENEA is conducting experiments aimed to identify methodologies, processes and eco-innovative systems for the treatment and valorization of the waste organic fractions; the activities involve the use of composters with different characteristics and are intended to monitor the aerobic biological process that occurs in these equipment as well as the use of different types of structuring materials. The community composting plants represent the reference technology for the treatment, recovery and exploitation of organic waste produced in limited quantities as well as a system dedicated to particular areas, as decentralized municipalities, mountain villages, island territories, etc. ... where the wet fraction management represents a significant economic cost related to the cycle of waste collecting, transporting treatment, recovery and disposal.