Open AccessImpact of municipal and industrial waste incinerators on PCBs content in the environment
Author(s) -
Marta Gabryszewska,
Barbara Gworek
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0242698
Subject(s) - incineration , soil water , environmental science , municipal solid waste , waste management , mobile incinerator , industrial waste , bioaccumulation , combustion , incinerator bottom ash , environmental chemistry , environmental engineering , bottom ash , chemistry , fly ash , waste collection , engineering , soil science , organic chemistry
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been withdrawn from the market due to their toxicity, bioaccumulation capacity, and persistence. PCBs have been observed to potentially form in combustion processes under appropriate conditions and in the presence of precursors containing chlorine. The study covered a municipal waste incineration plant and an industrial waste incineration plant. The objective of the study was to assess the effect of these objects on PCB accumulation in soil and plants taking into account the distance from the emission object and wind direction. Soil samples were collected from layers: 0-5, 5-10, 10-20, and 20-30 cm. Test plants were collected from the same areas as the soil samples. The highest accumulation of PCBs was found in plants with large leaf area. Around the municipal waste incineration plant, these were Tanacetum vulgare leaves (12.45 ng/g), and around the industrial waste incineration plant–grasses (4.3 ng/g). In the case of soils, the accumulation of PCBs for both kind waste incinerators was similar, reaching approximately 3 ng/g. As the distance from the municipal waste incinerator and industrial waste incinerator increased, the accumulation of PCBs in the soil decreased. For municipal waste incinerator, no effect of wind direction on PCB accumulation in the soil was observed. In the majority of cases, the accumulation of PCBs in soils taken from the leeward side of the industrial waste incinerator was higher than that in soils from the windward side. In soils around the municipal waste incinerator, PCB compounds moved deep into the soil and reached the highest accumulation in the soil layer of 10-20 cm or 20-30 cm. In soils around the industrial waste incinerator, the highest accumulation of PCBs occurred in the soil layer of 0-5 cm.