UNAIR NEWS – Undeniably, wastewater is still a problem that often occurs in Indonesia, especially in big cities like Surabaya, the management of wastewater from both households and laundry businesses has not been optimized. The phosphate content of the detergent in laundry wastewater is very dangerous for the environment.
Some of the potential impacts of laundry waste include water fertilization (eutrophication) marked by the emergence of many water plants such as water hyacinth and algae on the rivers. Uncontrolled plant growth will cause new problems such as fish death, unpleasant odors, and even increase the potential for flooding due to clogged waterways. So efforts are needed to treat wastewater by reducing the phosphate content before disposal to minimize the negative impacts.
A lecturer of Faculty of Science and Technology, Febri Eko Wahyudianto, S.T., M.T., found a laundry wastewater management method that is cheap and easy to do. “One alternative waste water treatment that can be applied is the Constructed Wetlands method,” he explained.
The method, he continued, is indeed a little unfamiliar when it is associated with wastewater treatment. But through the research he had done, the method proved to be efficient. “This method is quite easy to do, wastewater treatment done by creating an artificial garden and using plants as an agent for treating wastewater,” he explained.
The constructed wetlands method uses water bamboo plants as a waste water treatment agent. The research was carried out by planting water bamboo in pots with soil media then watered with laundry wastewater.
Periodically, laundry wastewater is removed from the drains on the base of the pot. The water is treated wastewater. “The results of the analysis of the phosphate content in treated water showed that there was a decrease in the phosphate content to less than 0.5 mg / L or the processing efficiency reached more than 95 percent,” he said.
Phosphate is utilized by water bamboo in its growth process. The result of the study showed that the concentration of the elemental phosphorus content in the stems and roots of water bamboo was getting higher. “The accumulation of phosphorus in water bamboo stems increased from 38.81 mg / kg to 44.73 mg / kg dry weight. Whereas the water bamboo root increased from 220.98 mg / kg to 241.37 mg / kg dry weight, “he said.
Not only that, an increase in the element of phosphorus also occurs in the soil as a growing medium. Based on the analysis, the removal process was both physical (sedimentation, ed) and chemical in nature. This is indicated by the reaction between the elements contained in the growing media with phosphate or absorption by plants. The results of the study showed that laundry wastewater treatment using water bamboo wetlands method can be used as an alternative of laundry wastewater treatment to reduce phosphate content.
“When it is viewed from an economic perspective, the making of this installation does not require substantial costs. The wastewater treatment using the constructed wetlands method with water bamboo provides ecological and beauty benefits, “he concluded. (*)
Author: Erika Eight Novanty
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
Reference : Febri Eko Wahyudianto, Nur Indradewi Oktavitri, Sucipto Hariyanto (2019). Kinetics of Phosporus Removal from Laundry Wastewater in Constructed Wetlands with Equisetum hymale. Journal of Ecological Engineering. 20(6): 60-65.
