Biodegradation by fungi: an effective tool for the implementation of landfill leachate treatment

Landfill leachate and textile wastewaters have many features in common: both show dark colour, high concentrations of recalcitrant pollutants and COD, and are very toxic. Porostereum spadiceum MUT 1585, a fungus able to decolourise textile wastewaters, was tested for the treatment of both a row landfill leachate and an effluent coming from a landfill leachate treatment plant. The experiment was performed with free and immobilised biomasses. The decolourisation, the chemical oxygen demand and the toxicity were monitored. The raw leachate was too toxic to allow the fungal growth, whereas the effluent colour was halved in one week. Peroxidases were the main enzymes involved in the process. The fungal treatment caused the increase of toxicity towards two target organisms.