Reuse potential of laundry greywater for irrigation based on growth, water and nutrient use of tomato

Greywater is considered as a valuable resource with a high reuse potential for irrigation of household lawns and gardens. However, there are possibilities of surfactant and sodium accumulation in soil from reuse of greywater which may affect agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability adversely. We conducted a glasshouse experiment to examine variation in growth, water and nutrient use of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv. Grosse Lisse) using tap water (TW), laundry greywater (GW) and solutions of low and high concentration of a detergent surfactant (LC and HC, respectively) as irrigation treatments. Each treatment was replicated five times using a randomised block design. Measurements throughout the experiment showed greywater to be significantly more alkaline and saline than the other types of irrigation water. Although all plants received sixteen irrigations over a period of nine weeks until flowering, there were little or no significant effects of irrigation treatments on plant growth. Soil water retention following irrigation reduced significantly when plants were irrigated with GW or surfactant solutions on only three of twelve occasions. On one occasion, water use measured as evapotranspiration (ET) with GW irrigation was similar to TW, but it was significantly higher than the plants receiving HC irrigation. At harvest, various components of plant biomass and leaf area for GW irrigated plants were found to be similar or significantly higher than the TW irrigated plants with a common trend of GW >= TW > LC >= HC. Whole-plant concentration was measured for twelve essential plant nutrients (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn, Mo and B) and Na (often considered as a beneficial nutrient). Irrigation treatments affected the concentration of four nutrients (P, Fe, Zn and Na) and uptake of seven nutrients (P, K, Ca, Mg, Na, Fe and B) significantly. Uptake of these seven nutrients by tomato was generally in the order GW >= TW > HC >= LC. GW irrigated plants had the highest concentration of P, Na and Fe which were 39-85% higher than the TW irrigated plants. Compared with tap water irrigated plants, greywater irrigated plants removed only 6% excess B, but substantially greater quantity of Na (83%) and Fe (86%).These results suggest that laundry greywater has a promising potential for reuse as irrigation water to grow tomato.

[1]  Thor Axel Stenström,et al.  Faecal contamination of greywater and associated microbial risks. , 2003, Water research.

[2]  J. Garland,et al.  Graywater processing in recirculating hydroponic systems: phytotoxicity, surfactant degradation, and bacterial dynamics , 2000 .

[3]  M. N. Jones,et al.  The biodegradation of surfactants in the environment. , 2000, Biochimica et biophysica acta.

[4]  Odeh Al-Jayyousi,et al.  Greywater reuse: towards sustainable water management , 2003 .

[5]  A. G. Norman,et al.  Considerations in the Use of Surfactants in Plant Systems: A Review , 1965, Botanical Gazette.

[6]  Gerald Kuhnt,et al.  Behavior and fate of surfactants in soil , 1993 .

[7]  M. Kirkham,et al.  Physiological Effects of Heavy Metals on Plant Growth and Function , 2006 .

[8]  G. D. Hubble,et al.  GENESIS OF RED AND BLACK SOILS ON BASALT ON THE DARLING DOWNS, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA , 1974 .

[9]  A. E. Greenberg,et al.  Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater : supplement to the sixteenth edition , 1988 .

[10]  M. Watson,et al.  Plant Analysis Handbook: A Practical Sampling, Preparation, Analysis, and Interpretation Guide , 1992 .

[11]  R. Ayers,et al.  Water quality for agriculture , 1976 .

[12]  G. W. Snedecor.  Statistical Methods , 1964 .

[13]  L. S. Pereira,et al.  Crop evapotranspiration : guidelines for computing crop water requirements , 1998 .

[14]  P. Cunniff.  Official Methods of Analysis of AOAC International , 2019 .

[15]  Amit Gross,et al.  Potential changes in soil properties following irrigation with surfactant-rich greywater , 2006 .

[16]  J. Field,et al.  Fate of alkylbenzenesulfonates and dialkyltetralinsulfonates in sewage-contaminated groundwater , 1992 .

[17]  Suzelle Barrington,et al.  Reuse of Domestic Greywater for the Irrigation of Food Crops , 2009 .

[18]  John O. Carter,et al.  Using spatial interpolation to construct a comprehensive archive of Australian climate data , 2001, Environ. Model. Softw..

[19]  K. Wignarajah,et al.  Phytotoxic Effects of Gray Water Due to Surfactants , 1997 .

[20]  A Gross,et al.  Effects of surfactants originating from reuse of greywater on capillary rise in the soil. , 2005, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[21]  A Gross,et al.  Environmental impact and health risks associated with greywater irrigation: a case study. , 2005, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[22]  T. Küchler,et al.  Behaviour of Linear Alkylbenzene Sulphonates (LAS) in sandy soils with low amounts of organic matter , 1997 .

[23]  Scott McFarlane,et al.  An investigation into greywater reuse for urban residential properties , 1996 .

[24]  L. Natr.  Plant Analysis: An Interpretation Manual , 2004, Photosynthetica.

[25]  D. J. Reuter,et al.  Soil Analysis: An Interpretation Manual , 1999 .

[26]  Antonio Marcomini,et al.  Occurrence and behaviour of linear alkylbenzenesulphonates, nonylphenol, nonylphenol mono- and nonylphenol diethoxylates in sewage and sewage sludge treatment , 1988 .

[27]  W. Horwitz,et al.  Official methods of analysis of AOAC International , 2010 .

[28]  R. Isbell.  Australian Soil Classification , 1996 .

[29]  B. Jeppesen,et al.  Domestic greywater re-use: australia's challenge for the future , 1996 .

[30]  J L Garland,et al.  Response of graywater recycling systems based on hydroponic plant growth to three classes of surfactants. , 2004, Water research.

[31]  Jb Robinson,et al.  Plant Analysis: An Interpretation Manual , 1997 .

[32]  Ramesh P. Rudra,et al.  Effect of Application of Surfactants on Hydraulic Properties of Soils , 2003 .

[33]  R. K. Misra,et al.  Reuse of laundry greywater as affected by its interaction with saturated soil , 2009 .

[34]  Robert Wilkinson,et al.  Plant-environment interactions , 2000 .

[35]  P. Rao,et al.  Adsorption of anionic and nonionic surfactant mixtures from synthetic detergents on soils. , 2006, Chemosphere.

[36]  Mogens Henze,et al.  Household chemicals and personal care products as sources for xenobiotic organic compounds in grey wastewater , 2003 .