F. Ingelmo et al., USE OF MSW COMPOST, DRIED SEWAGE-SLUDGE AND OTHER WASTES AS PARTIAL SUBSTITUTES FOR PEAT AND SOIL, Bioresource technology, 63(2), 1998, pp. 123-129
Citations number
21
Categorie Soggetti
Energy & Fuels","Biothechnology & Applied Migrobiology",Agriculture
The use of different materials; peat, sand or forest soil, in the prod
uction of substrates for ornamental plants and for revegetating sealed
landfills is a practice leading to economic and environmental problem
s. Therefore, the feasibility of using composted municipal solid waste
s (MSW), sewage sludge and other organic wastes to produce alternative
substrates for ornamental plants and to improve the re-vegetation of
a closed landfill has been investigated. For substrate production, 50%
of the peat content in a common substrate used in Spanish nurseries w
as successfully replaced with different mixtures of MSW compost, dry s
ewage sludge, grape marc, rice hull and pine bark, reducing the cost o
f substrates while not diminishing the quality of plants produced, and
using similar amounts of water and nutrients. Regarding re-vegetation
of the landfill, the usual 20-40 cm thick layer of fertile soil was s
uccessfully replaced with just 5-10 cm of non-fertile soil together wi
th a superficial layer of MSW compost (45 t ha(-1)) or dry sewage slud
ge (90 t ha(-1)), and bushy authoctonous vegetation was introduced lat
er as usual Good and fast vegetation covering of the landfill was obse
rved after both treatments, which was similar to that obtained with st
andard and environmentally aggressive revegetating procedures. (C) 199
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