Ecology & Safety, Volume 17, 2023

Abstract: The largest official municipal solid waste disposal site (SWDS) in Georgia has been serving the capital since 2011. In 2018, a reverse osmosis system was installed at the landfill for the treatment of leachate water, the capacity of which was 12 m3/day, which was insufficient, and accordingly, it was out of order at the end of 2018. At present, since it is not possible to clean the leachate for discharge into the sewage system in accordance with the legal norms, the leachate is collected in open tanks, where sedimentation takes place and then returns to the body of the landfill (circulates), which on the one hand partially limits the pollution of surface waters, and on the other hand accelerates the process of decomposition of mixed waste, but also daily enriches leachate water with both chemical and biological toxins. The goal of our research was to determine the dynamics of the microbiological indicators of the leachate water generated at the largest SWDS in Georgia during the years 2022-2023 and alternative complex treatment of leachate, through which the microbiological indicators will be reduced to the norm without additional measures. The carbon sorbents of different origins and fractions (under static conditions) were used in the framework of the research to treatment of highly polluted waters. It was determined that the sorption of the studied microbiological indicators (Total Coliform, E. coli, Enterococci) on the example of the carbon sorbents used by us is fluctuating and highly dependent on the size of the sorbent, and it should be noted that the optimal result is obtained when using a microsorbent and the degree of sorption of all three microbiological indicators reaches 98 %.