An Assessment of Physicochemical Characteristics and Heavy Metals Concentrations of Effluent Water Discharge in Plastic – Sand Brick Production

The physicochemical parameters and heavy metals concentrations of effluent water discharge during production of plastic – sand bricks were examined. The samples were collected in sterile containers from the recycled wastewater collector system and was bench marked with a controlled water sample collected from the Institute of Pollution Studies laboratory, Rivers State University campus. The containers were first rinsed with the sample water before the final collection. The samples collected were taken in an iced - packed cooler to the Institute of Pollution Studies laboratory, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, where the analysis was performed. The physicochemical parameters analysis results show that temperature (28.90°C), Turbidity (114 NTU), Conductivity level (48.4 µS/cm), Salinity (0.05 mg/l), Total Dissolved Solids, TDS, (81mg/l), Total Hardness level (15.3 mg/l) and alkalinity level (2 mg/l) are within the regulatory authority allowed limits although pH level of 5.04 for the plastic brick effluent was too acidic. Metallic ions such as Chloride (4.5 mg/l), Sulphate (3.21 mg/l), Nitrate (1.35 mg/l), Phosphate (0.08 mg/l), Manganese (<0.038 mg/l,) calcium (5.172 mg/l), Magnesium (0.578 mg/l) and iron (<0.005 mg/l) were also examined and were found to be within the regulatory limits. This study supports the production of plastic – sand bricks as an environmental management tool since the effluent parameters except pH fall within the regulatory limits and the plastic wastes recycled to bricks in sound environmental method. It is recommended that before any discharge of the effluent to the environment, all discharges should be monitored and analysed to avoid discharging toxic effluent to the environment since waste sludges used as additives may contain elevated levels of certain pollutants.