Estudo biodegradativo dos resíduos sólidos urbanos da cidade de Campina Grande-PB em escala experimental.

Abstract

Municipal solid waste (MSW) has caused problems for society and for the environment. In most Brazilian cities MSW are usually deposited in landfills or open land areas, which makes the monitoring of such sites necessary to prevent the contamination of the air, soil and water. Experimental cells (lysimeters) can be used for parameters and for understand the behavior of MSW landfills through its monitoring. This study was conducted in a Experimental Station – ESTRABES (Estação Experimental de Tratamento Biológico de Esgotos Sanitários) and its purpose is to verify and monitor the process of biodegradation of municipal solid waste in the city of Campina Grande-PB, through the understanding of physical, chemical and microbiological parameters in a lysimeter as a smaller scale experiment. The monitoring of the lysimeter measurements involved "in situ" experiments and periodic collection of solid waste samples for laboratory testing of various parameters, such as temperature, moisture content, pH, metals, quantification of microorganisms (coliform group, total aerobic and fungi) and tests of phytotoxicity, and statistical studies to verify the behavior of the analyzed characteristics. The general behavior of most parameters was consistent with values found by various authors in search of MSW landfills or experimental cells. Due to the heterogeneity of the waste and the process of collection of solid samples, most of the results showed variations in their values. The results indicated that weather conditions can significantly influence the quantification of microorganisms and moisture. According to the pH results from the superior samples of the lysimeter, it is shown that there is a very short initial acid phase, presenting a methanogenic stage after 50 days of monitoring. Unlike the lower sample where the acidogênicas, acetogênicas and methanogenic phases were well observed in the lysimeter. Statistical analysis showed that aerobic microorganisms and fungi showed a growing microbial development in the mass of garbage, where temperature and humidity encourage this activity.