Industrial Wastes in Soil Improvement

Composting Agricultural and Industrial Wastes

Co-composting of pharmaceutical wastes in soil.

AIMS Soils at a commercial facility had become contaminated with the pharmaceutical chemical residues, Probenecid and Methaqualone, and required remediation. METHODS AND RESULTS Soil composting was investigated as an alternative to incineration for treatment. In laboratory trials, a factorial experimental design was used to evaluate organic matter amendment type and concentration, and incubat...

Phytoremediation of pesticide wastes in soil.

Soils at agrochemical dealer sites often are contaminated with pesticide residues from decades of accidental and incidental spillage. We have determined that prairie grasses native to the Midwestern U.S. are suitable for phytoremediation because they are tolerant of most herbicides and of climatic extremes, such as heat, cold, drought, and flooding. A mixed stand of big bluestem, switch grass, ...

Decomposition of Potato Processing Wastes in Soil'

Solid filtered or centrifuged potato processing wastes were obtained from three potato processors in Idaho. The waste samples were dried and ground to pass a 2-nun sieve and added to soils at rates of 0, 2.5, 10, and 25 g/kg. The 100-g samples of Portneuf silt loam soil containing the waste material was incubated at 26 °C and decomposition of the added wastes was determined by measuring CO, evo...

Soil Washing to Remove Mixed Wastes

Objective The goal of this laboratory exercise is to acquaint students with some of the chemical reactions that result in the binding of inorganic and organic pollutants in subsurface materials. Extractants used by engineers to release contaminants at hazardous waste sites (where mixtures of both types of contaminants are present) may or may not prove effective, depending upon their mechanism o...