A detailed study of the physicochemical parameters of the solid waste dumping grounds adjoining densely populated areas: A case study in India

Background: Industrialization and urbanization in developing countries are the major issues responsible for producing colossal amounts of waste (about 51.35 tons per day). Midnapore municipality as a class-I town (> 100 000 population) puts in a large amount of solid waste without any treatment facility in its districts. Thus, disposal as well as treatment is an area of concern. Waste that comes from different sources could have some beneficial effects along with potentially hazardous side effects. So, finding out the issues is important. Methods: After selecting the study area, soil samples were collected from five different dumping sites. Different plant micronutrient and heavy metal content of soil samples have been done by spectrophotometric method and atomic absorption spectroscopic analysis. Soil pollution indices geoaccumulation index (Igeo), contamination factor (Cf), ecological risk index (Er), pollution load index (PLI), and modified degree of contamination (MDC) were calculated by standard formulas. Results: This study shows the presence of a wide variety of elements that have bio-potential. This reveals that it can be used to promote soil fertility due to increases in parameters like soil nitrogen (0.165 ± 0.047%), phosphorus (63.558 ± 15.82 mg/kg), organic carbon (4.22 ± 1.838%), potassium (0.308 ± 0.078%), etc. Assessments of pollution indices showed moderate heavy metal contamination in the study areas. Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, the soil fertility parameters in the dumping ground are high and can be reused as organic manure; the only issue is a low to moderate level of heavy metal contamination.