CBI Pro-Akademia

Increase of sewage sludge production in Poland required undertaking specific methods of their utilization and disposal. The reason is that sewage sludge despite organic matter, and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus that are useful for agriculture use, contains also heavy metals, toxic organic pollutant such as persistent organic pollutant, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, inorganic compounds such as silicates and aluminates, and pathogenic and other microbial pollutants. This implicates problems with the further use of such contaminated sludge as a fertilizer in the agriculture. Considering above, the general aim of this paper is to review the possibilities and restrictions of municipal sewage sludge use as soil and plant fertilizer. In particular, the effect of municipal sewage sludge application on the soil organic matter restitution and preservation and crop yield were investigated; and in the case of contaminated sewage sludge overview of the main methods of their treatment prior to introduction into the environment.