Four composting treatments for municipal sludge and rice straw were carried out, which included turning composting, inoculation-turning composting, continuous aeration, and intermittent aeration. GC/MS determination of phthalic acid esters (PAEs) in different composted composts showed that the total contents of six PAE compounds (sigma PAEs) ranged from 0.980-17.832 mg.kg-1, decreasing in the order of turning composting (17.832 mg.kg-1) > inoculation-turning composting (13.927 mg.kg-1) > intermittent aeration (10.765 mg.kg-1) > continuous aeration (9.815 mg.kg-1). DnOP was dominated in the composts. The degradation rate of sigma PAEs after composting was 1.37-45.71% (mean 27.63%), and that of diethyl phthalate (DEP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP) and butylbenzyl phthalate (BBP) was 95.76-98.68%, 79.56-99.46% and 87.42-98.42%, respectively. The concentration of di-n-octyl phthalate (DnOP) was increased in the composts. Aeration-composting, and continuous aeration composting in particular, was more efficient than other treatments to degrade PAEs in municipal sludge.