Mycoremediation of Contaminated Soil in MSW Sites

Abstract

Solid waste management has been given the topmost priority in the recent times. Solid waste dumping has increased drastically in the past few years. Accumulated garbage dumping has resulted in the contamination of soils that lay below the pile of municipal solid waste or MSW. The outcome of long-term accumulation of MSW on soil is the intensification of contaminants such as heavy metals and other metals in the soil. The presence of pollutants in soil makes it unsuitable for agriculture and as grazing pastures. The heavy metals from the soil are absorbed by the plants/produce, and these when consumed enter the never-ending food chain causing damage to animals and human beings. The yield of produce is also affected by the presence of heavy metals. The dire need of the hour is for technologies to remediate the soils. Bioremediation is an emerging technology that utilizes natural means to remediate soil, thus proving to be economical and efficient as compared to conventional chemical technologies. Mycoremediation and phytoremediation of soil incorporate the use of fungi and plants to alleviate the soil conditions. This study focuses on the effect and efficiency of mycoremediation and phytoremediation on MSW soil. In this research, Pleurotus ostreatus was used and was incubated with appropriate nutrition with MSW soil for 25 days. The phytoremediation of MSW soil was performed by sowing fenugreek seeds on MSW soil and allowing the growth for 25–29 days Almost 82% of the nickel was removed from the soil at the end of 25 days. The phytoremediation yielded only 55% removal of lead and 92% of nickel. Thus, mycoremediation is a promising technology that can be incorporated to treat soil adulterated due to solid waste dumping or MSW. This research compares the two technologies with regard to efficiency of the process, cost-effectiveness, and deduces a more suitable technology.