Open AccessThe potentional of plants to cleanup metals from an old landfill site
Author(s) -
Yahya Jani,
Charlotte Marchand,
William Hogland
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
linnaeus eco-tech
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2002-8008
DOI - 10.15626/eco-tech.2014.017
Subject(s) - soil water , environmental chemistry , heavy metals , contamination , soil contamination , environmental science , metal , hazardous waste , soil test , chemistry , environmental engineering , waste management , soil science , ecology , organic chemistry , engineering , biology
Old landfill sites contain different hazardous materials like heavy metals which have the ability to affects the entire environment. These places are sometimes covered by plants to increase the stability of the soil and to reduce the effects of erosion. 15 soil samples (3 samples from each place) and 5-7 timothy-grass (Phleum pretense) plants from 5 different places were taken from an old landfill place in an active landfill site in Högbytorp /Sweden owned by Ragn-sells Group Company. XRF scanning was used to analyze the metal content of soil samples and of plants. High concentrations of metals were detected in the soil samples like Fe with an average of about 25000 ppm, Mn about 250 ppm and 2800 ppm of Ti. The plants results showed an average concentration of Fe in the shoots about 730 ppm, Mn about 60 ppm and Ti about 1760 ppm. On the other hand, the roots results showed an average concentration of about 10 000 ppm of Fe, about 160 ppm of Mn and 2200 ppm of Ti. These results gave the indication that the Timothy-grass has the ability to extract metals from contaminated soils and can help to cleanup these soils.