Sewage treatment by reed bed systems

In the past five years sewage-treatment systems, based on artificial reed beds, have created much interest in Europe. In the UK, reed bed treatment systems have attracted this interest because of their potential for producing cost-effective treatment for small communities. In 1985 a UK coordinating group was established to produce an integrated research and development programme for evaluating the process. This paper briefly describes the principles lying behind reed bed treatment systems, and outlines the progress which has been made to January 1988. The results of performance from eight full-scale and pilot-scale systems are presented in detail.