To spread or not to spread? Assessing the suitability of sewage sludge and other biogenic wastes for agriculture reuse.
MethodsX
; 12: 102599, 2024 Jun.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38379723
ABSTRACT
Sewage sludge (biosolids) management represents a worldwide issue. Due to its valuable properties, approximately one half of the EU production is recovered in agriculture. Nevertheless, growing attention is given to potential negative effects deriving from the presence of harmful pollutants. It is recognized that a (even very detailed) chemical characterization is not able to predict ecotoxicity of a mixture. However, this can be directly measured by bioassays. Actually, the choice of the most suitable tests is still under debate. This paper presents a multilevel characterization protocol of sewage sludge and other organic residues, based on bioassays and chemical-physical-microbiological analyses. The detailed description of the experimental procedure includes all the involved steps:
the criteria for selecting the organic matrices to be tested and compared; the sample pre-treatment required before the analyses execution; the chemical, physical and microbiological characterisation; the bioassays, grouped in three classes (baseline toxicity; specific mode of action; reactive mode of action); data processing. The novelty of this paper lies in the integrated use of advanced tools, and is based on three pillarsâ¢the direct ecosafety assessment of the matrices to be reused.â¢the adoption of innovative bioassays and analytical procedures.â¢the original criteria for data normalization and processing.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
MethodsX
Year:
2024
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Italy