CHEMICAL POLLUTANTS CONTENT OF SEWAGE SLUDGE AND ITS USE AS FERTILIZER ACROSS EUROPE

The sewage sludge is rich in nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous and contains valuable organic matter that is useful when soils are depleted or subject to erosion. The organic matter and nutrients are the two main elements that make the spreading of this kind of waste on land as a fertilizer or an organic soil improver suitable. However the sewage sludge tends to contain heavy metals and poorly biodegradable trace organic compounds as well as potentially pathogenic organisms due to its waste water treatment process origin. The present study shows the European reality concerning the sewage sludge contamination by four classes of organic contaminants, by comparing the Italian situation, data obtained in the present work, with the other European Union countries, and assess the sewage sludge suitability as soil fertilizer.