Environmental Risk from Organic Residues

Abstract

Soil nutrient imbalance is a global threat to food security and ecosystem sustainability but adding organic residues or constructing anthropogenic soils and technosols can optimize it. However, FAO considers organic residues not “risk-free”, mainly due to their heavy metal content. Despite the fact that applying pruning residues to soil is a worldwide fertilization practice, its potential heavy metal risk has been poorly studied. This work characterizes Cu, Zn, Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb elemental composition concentration and their solubility content in almond tree pruning, commercial peat substrate, hay straw, olive tree pruning, pomegranate peel, pine needle, date palm leaf pruning, sewage sludge compost and vine pruning. Furthermore, we compare the legal frameworks governing heavy metal content in agricultural substrates to heavy metal concentration in each residue. Results show that commercial peat substrate is the only one among those studied that surpasses the threshold value for Cr in agricultural substrates. All pruning residues met the heavy metal threshold value; hence, their application to soil involves minimal soil toxicity. Moreover, the solubility index of heavy metals and the maximum quantity of each residue are crucial to discerning a heavy metal-free organic fertilization plan.

Low-Quality Irrigation Water Treated Using Waste Biofilters

“…Almond tree pruning was subjected to conditioning processes consisting of air drying at room temperature and chopping (5 cm size). The porosity was 69.6%, and its characterization is provided in Table 1, and methods of analysis were previously published [48,49]. The vertical bioreactor had one section with two layers.…”

“…Table 1. Almond tree pruning characterization: organic matter content (OM), pH, electrical conductivity (EC) and bulk density ( b ), mean value (M) and standard deviation (SD) [48,49]. The constant supply of irrigation water to the bioreactors was achieved using peristaltic pumps (inlet point) from polyethylene deposits, keeping the flow rate in all the treatments (2.3 L day −1 ) and the hydraulic retention time (4 days) the same.…”

The concept of food waste and food loss prevention and measuring tools

“…Apart from the social and economic dimension, FW production has severe environmental impacts on the environment like GHG emissions, energy, water usage, soil pollution, etc. (Lou et al, 2011; Papargyropoulou et al, 2014; Rodríguez-Espinosa et al, 2023; Thyberg and Tonjes, 2016; von Braun et al, 2023). FW during the tertiary level (retail and consumption) typically has greater and more accumulative environmental impacts when compared to waste generated at earlier stages, due to the additional processing and transportation involved up to this stage.…”

“…FW during the tertiary level (retail and consumption) typically has greater and more accumulative environmental impacts when compared to waste generated at earlier stages, due to the additional processing and transportation involved up to this stage. Wasting food translates to wasting natural resources, such as water, land use, energy, chemicals, fertilizers and materials used by actors in the supply chain (Rodríguez-Espinosa et al, 2023; von Braun et al, 2023). At the same time, according to Golia (2023), there is a universal concern about inhibiting the soil’s primary functions (due to fertilizer use for food cultivation and other) and the potential degradation of its quality (Bethanis and Golia, 2024).…”

Impact on Food of Uranium and Heavy Metals Mining Activities

“…Heavy metals are potential environmental pollutants, with the ability to cause serious health problems (disorders, diseases, organ malformations) [1][2][3]. An important source of heavy metal pollution is agriculture through the inputs used (chemical fertilizers, organic fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation water) [4][5][6]. The systematic and long application of phosphorus-based and zinc fertilizers leads to the increase of cadmium accumulations in soils [7][8][9].…”