Plants and manure / biowaste / heavy metal waste

So to the green thumbs and bio engineers types-
We put manure in garden areas to return the nutriants that go into a crop.

In some areas human waste is spread on the ground and in areas were there is heavy metals (tailing ponds) plants are planted to absorb the heavy material.
My question is, do plants break down the elements that come from bio waste and heavy metals to a point they become inert?

Re: Plants and manure / biowaste / heavy metal waste

im no engineer, or scientist, but do deal with some nasty waste water. we treat it in aerated lagoons for the first process, then run it through sand filters, then atomize the final effluent via a spray tower and it ends up on the forest floor. according to the "brains" behind the system, its the microbes that live in the soil that do all the work . they break down the complex molecules into basic elements . the vegetation is supposedly only there to hold the soil together and drink the "water".

Re: Plants and manure / biowaste / heavy metal waste

my understanding is that nothing breaks down a heavy metals as its a basic element. the plants will store the metals in the roots burying them. there are heavy metals everywhere in nature which are no cause for concern unless they are released into the food supply. bio waste is normally pre-treated before being sprayed. one down side is that human bio has been found to contain medical/cemicals that have survived treatment and there are questions of the affect on food supplies.

Re: Plants and manure / biowaste / heavy metal waste

Not in my experience. The plants will take up the chemicals with water and store them in their "bodies". Eat any portion of the plant and you will expose yourself to those chemicals. Hence we don't apply liquid termite poisons around fruit trees or vegetable gardens.

Re: Plants and manure / biowaste / heavy metal waste

no expert but humans are the only ones that have heavy metals in their poooooo

Re: Plants and manure / biowaste / heavy metal waste

Getting some of the municipal waste for my yard(after treatment). It is really good, class A stuff. Hard to get because the farmers around here line up for it. Couldn't do that before a couple of the factories closed, but the heavy metal content is no longer in the sewage, making the dried, treated, solid excellent soil/fertilizer.

Re: Plants and manure / biowaste / heavy metal waste

Aha !!!!! a poop thread !!!
I will be on the sidelines watching this one

Re: Plants and manure / biowaste / heavy metal waste

My understanding of heavy metals is that they never become inert, and that toxicity with accumulation is the primary concern with them. They are a little too ubiquitous to avoid completely (and some heavy metals are necessary to the body), but limits and detox are important to pay attention too as well.

Re: Plants and manure / biowaste / heavy metal waste

Like others have said, heavy metals don't break down. Plants can absorb the metals but they then become contaminated themselves. Sludge pond solids that contain heavy metals or ather toxins are disposed of as hazardous waste. Naturally occuring heavy metals like mercury can and do concentrate in some fish and animals. That's why there are limits on the maximum size of fish taken from those lakes and recommendations for limiting how many you eat.

Typically, municipal waste pond sediment will not be released to the general public unless toxin levels are below certain limits.

Re: Plants and manure / biowaste / heavy metal waste

+1. Heavy metals don't break down. The plants are merely there to "sequester", or trap the elements so they don't get into the air, or water. I suppose in many tens of thousands of years, after many half-lives have elapsed some of the more radioactive elements will decay into other elements, but none of us will be here for that. That's the problem with heavy metals, they never go away, which is why people are so cautious around lead paint, mercury, etc... (can you believe they used to put lead in paint and gas????). The metals gets metabolized and deposited in the brain and/or liver, which then interferes with mico and macro processes. So does mercury. That's where the expression "mad as a hatter" comes from. They used their lips to apply mercury to form the rim and brim of hats. Of course, overtime the mercury would build up in their systems and make them nuttier than a fruitcake. That's where the character in Alice in Wonderland comes form. It was a very real phenomenon. Women also used to apply glow-in-the dark radium to wrist watches and the like by using very fine brushes that they would lick. I think you can figure out what happened next :/ Live and learn, I suppose. There's even a "cool" genetic disorder called Wilson's disease in which the body sequesters excess copper in the brain and liver, which can again lead to various neurological defects. You can actually diagnose it by looking for very small deposits of copper around the iris of the eye. Neat-o.