Ecological and Microbial Processes in Green Waste Co-Composting for Pathogen Control and Evaluation of Compost Quality Index (CQI) Toward Agricultural Biosafety

Composting represents a sustainable and effective strategy for converting organic waste into nutrient-rich soil amendments, providing a safer alternative to raw manure, which poses significant risks of soil, crop, and water contamination through pathogenic microorganisms. This study, conducted under semi-arid Moroccan conditions, investigated the efficiency of co-composting green garden waste with sheep manure in an open window system, with the objective of assessing pathogen inactivation and evaluating compost quality. The process, conducted over 120 days, maintained thermophilic temperatures exceeding 55 °C, effectively reducing key pathogens including Escherichia coli, total coliforms, Staphylococcus…