Development of the degradation bacteria in household food waste and analysis of the microbial community in aerobic composting

By screening the strains and testing different combinations of diverse bacteria, we developed a compound bacterial agent composed of 5 g Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (B2), 10 g Pseudomonas aeruginosa (F4), 5 g Paenibacillus lautus (303), and 10 ml composite strains (DOD) for the degradation of household food waste (HFW). The final mass loss of HFW in aerobic composting with the compound bacteria agent B2+F4+303+DOD (group C) was 84.52%, increased by 20.83% over that loss in natural composting (group A). Analysis of 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing showed that the phyla in group A and group C mainly included Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and Cyanobacteria. At the genus level, Pediococcus was the dominant genus in group A, of which the microbial community performed better in maintaining a stable microbial system in the later stage of composting, while Weissella accounted for a larger proportion of group C, which acted well in reducing the final mass of composting. Ochrobactrum was closely related to the removal of odors in the early stage of group C. The relative abundance of compound bacterial agents was always at a rather low level, suggesting that it affected the composting process by changing the proportion of dominant bacteria in the compost.