Evaluating the Effects of Irrigation with Reused Water and Compost from a Pilot Wastewater Treatment Unit on the Experimental Growth of Two Common Ornamental Plant Species in the City of Athens

Konstantinos Tsimnadis, Giannis Katsenios, Stylianos Fanourakis, Grigorios L. Kyriakopoulos (), Antonios Kyriakakis, Dimitrios Kyriakakis and Dimitrios Tsagkaropoulos
Additional contact information
Konstantinos Tsimnadis: Department of Greenery and Urban Fauna, City of Athens, P. Kanellopoulou 5, 11525 Athens, Greece
Giannis Katsenios: Department of Greenery and Urban Fauna, City of Athens, P. Kanellopoulou 5, 11525 Athens, Greece
Stylianos Fanourakis: Division of Beekeeping, Sericulture and Other Animal Organisms, Ministry of Rural Development and Food, Veranzerou 46, 10438 Athens, Greece
Grigorios L. Kyriakopoulos: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Zografou Campus, 15780 Athens, Greece
Antonios Kyriakakis: Department of Greenery and Urban Fauna, City of Athens, P. Kanellopoulou 5, 11525 Athens, Greece
Dimitrios Kyriakakis: Department of Greenery and Urban Fauna, City of Athens, P. Kanellopoulou 5, 11525 Athens, Greece
Dimitrios Tsagkaropoulos: Department of Greenery and Urban Fauna, City of Athens, P. Kanellopoulou 5, 11525 Athens, Greece

Clean Technol., 2025, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-21

Abstract: Since 2019, the NextGen pilot wastewater treatment unit—also known as the NextGen Sewer Mining concept—has been operating at the Athens Plant Nursery, transforming sewage from Athens’ central network into irrigation water and compost. This unit produces resources for plant growth through membrane bioreactors (MBRs) and aerobic sludge digestion. This study experimentally evaluates the effects of NextGen reused water and compost on two common ornamental plant species in Athens, Pittosporum tobira ( Angelica ) and Myrtus communis ( Common Myrtle ), compared to the use of tap water and red soil without additional fertilization. The results indicate that NextGen reused water combined with compost significantly promotes both height and weight growth in these plants. However, by the end of the experiment, compost fertilization had a greater effect on the height and weight growth of both Angelica and Myrtus plants when applied independently and watered with tap water, compared to the use of NextGen reused water combined with red soil. Notably, none of the 96 plants withered throughout the experiment, indicating that promising and sustainable technologies like the concept of Sewer Mining can effectively replace conventional and environmentally outdated methods of plant nutrition and irrigation by producing reused water and compost.

Keywords: wastewater treatment unit; irrigation water; compost; plant growth; plant evaluation experiment; Pittosporum tobira; Myrtus; fertilization; experimental results (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8797/7/1/13/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8797/7/1/13/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jcltec:v:7:y:2025:i:1:p:13-:d:1585680

Access Statistics for this article

Clean Technol. is currently edited by Ms. Shary Song

More articles in Clean Technol. from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().