Effects of Stale Refuse from Informal Landfill on Seed Germination of <i>Lolium perenne L.</i>

Abstract

It is critical to properly dispose and utilize aged waste from informal landfill in China currently. Seed germination experiments using Lolium perenne L. were carried out to investigate terrestrial ecotoxicity of the aged waste. 20%, 80% and 100% of aged waste were added to the culture medium, and distilled water and soil were uded as contrast. The results showed that aged waste could substantially improve the seed germination of Lolium perenne L. , and didn’t show toxic effects. The optimal proportion of aged waste in mixing matrix (aged waste and soil) was 80%, whose seed germination potential presented 52.0% and 24.0% higher, and germination rate presented 34.3% and 20.9% higher than that of in distilled water and soil substrate respectively. Meanwhile, aged waste could also facilitate the growth of root and sprout remarkably. The seeds grown in the optimal aged waste matrix increased their root length, sprout length and fresh mass by 316.4%, 108.4% and 100.1% in comparison to those grown in distilled water respectively. And the root length, sprout length and fresh mass of Lolium perenne L. grown in the optimail aged waste matrix were 50.0%, 46.9% and 74.0% higher than that of the control groups using soil as culture medium respectively. The experimental results indicated that land application could be a feasible approach for matured aged waste recycling.