stabilisation. The proportion of easily biodegradable organic C in
the initial mixture reached 52% of TOC and decreased regularly
in the composts sampled after 13, 41 and 83 days (36 ± 3, 35 ± 6
and 22 ± 2% of TOC, respectively; Fig. 3). The proportion of biodegradable
organic C had CV varying between 9 and 17% among
the six composts that attested a good reproducibility of the organic
matter stabilisation over composting. After 83 days of composting,
56 g of organic C in each reactor had been mineralised (calculated
from Table 1), and 17 g remained as easily biodegradable in the final
compost. The total of 73 g of organic C corresponded to the biodegradable
organic C present in the initial mixture. The most
recalcitrant fraction of organic C remained constant throughout
the entire process (58 g of organic C) representing 48% of TOC in
the initial mixture and 78% of TOC in the final composts. Such