Environmental effects and risk control of antibiotic resistance genes in the organic solid waste aerobic composting system: A review

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have been diffusely detected in several kinds of organic solid waste, such as livestock manure, sludge, antibiotic fermentation residues, and food waste, thus attracting great attention. Aerobic composting, which is an effective, harmless treatment method for organic solid waste to promote recycling, has been identified to also aid in ARG reduction. However, the effect of composting in removing ARGs from organic solid waste has recently become controversial. Thus, this article summarizes and reviews the research on ARGs in relation to composting in the past 5 years. ARGs in organic solid waste could spread in different environmental media, including soil and the atmosphere, which could widen environmental risks. However, the conventional composting technology had limited effect on ARGs removal from organic solid waste. Improved composting processes, such as hyperthermophilic temperature composting, could effectively remove ARGs, and the HGT of ARGs and the microbial communities are identified as vital influencing factors. Currently, during the composting process, ARGs were mainly affected by three response pathways, (I) “Microenvironment-ARGs”; (II) “Microenvironment-microorganisms-ARGs”; (III) “Microorganisms-horizontal gene transfer-ARGs”, respectively. Response pathway II had been studied the most which was believed that microbial community was an important factor affecting ARGs. In response pathway III, mainly believed that MGEs played an important role and paid less attention to eARGs. Further research on the role and impact of eARGs in ARGs may be considered in the future. It aims to provide support for further research on environmental risk control of ARGs in organic solid waste.