An Innovative Approach to Assess the Ecotoxicological Risks of Soil Exposed to Solid Waste

Sustainability

IoanLadislau Caba¹  Antoanela Cozma²  Ersilia Alexa³  Despina-Maria Bordean³  CorinaDana Misca³  Mariana-Atena Poiana³  AuricaBreica Borozan⁴  Luminita Pirvulescu⁵  DianaNicoleta Raba⁵  Adriana Morar⁶  Diana Obistioiu⁶ 

[1] Branch of Agricultural Mechanical Engineers in Romania—BAMER Timisoara, 1989 Revolution Avenue 15A, 300034 Timisoara, Romania;Faculty of Agriculture, Banat’s University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine “King Michael I of Romania” from Timisoara, Calea Aradului No. 119, 300645 Timisoara, Romania;Faculty of Food Engineering, Banat’s University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine “King Michael I of Romania” from Timisoara, Calea Aradului No. 119, 300645 Timisoara, Romania;Faculty of Horticulture and Forestry, Banat’s University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine “King Michael I of Romania” from Timisoara, Calea Aradului No. 119, 300645 Timisoara, Romania;Faculty of Management and Rural Tourism, Banat’s University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine “King Michael I of Romania” from Timisoara, Calea Aradului No. 119, 300645 Timisoara, Romania;Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Banat’s University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine “King Michael I of Romania” from Timisoara, Calea Aradului No. 119, 300645 Timisoara, Romania;

关键词: latent fingerprint;    landfill;    illegal waste dumps;    ecological indices;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su13116141

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The adoption of sustainable waste management strategies is a challenge faced by most European countries, mainly due to the need to generate less waste and replace landfills with new methods of waste treatment, associated with increases in the separate collection of waste and recycling rates. This paper highlights the significance of environmental legislation regarding waste removal to protect ecosystems. The aim was to predict ecological responses to heavy metals in soil exposed to hazardous waste and to identify environmental hazards in landfills, small illegal waste dumps, and litter, in addition to identifying if heavy metal accumulation in the investigated soil samples showed a single or cumulative risk. This is an innovative method to predict the ecological risk generated by hazardous waste landfills. The assessment of ecological risks was based on the evaluation of a heavy metal soil contamination factor, pollution index of soil loadings, a geo-accumulation index for heavy metals, and potential ecological risk. The current study is also the first to attempt to identify the dimension of risk based on the type of waste deposit (landfill, small illegal waste dump, and litter) and to identify potential patterns. The geological index corresponding to cadmium I_geo(Cd) showed heavy contamination in the soil samples from the landfill and moderate contamination for those from the illegal waste dumps. These findings indicate that soil contamination is influenced by contamination time, anthropogenic processes, and a history of industrial activity, and not only by waste composition and storage. The present study shows that cadmium might be considered a latent fingerprint for waste disposal, which is correlated to the industrialization level and rehabilitation procedures.

【 授权许可】

Unknown