What I am about to tell you something that I found to be very interesting. I was startled the first time I saw the heading: ?Using Paper Mill Sewage Sludge as an Alternative Seedling Growth Media to Peat? on an article. What this was saying was that sewage sludge could be used to grow plants. I mean I never thought that something to be known as so dirty could in any way be used to grow plants. But, surprisingly enough it seems that I was wrong about my point of view on the matter.

               In January of 2015, Mesude Ünal, a Turkish scientist, published an article with the heading of: ?Research on the Possibilities of Using Paper Mill Sewage Sludge as an Alternative Seedling Growth Media to Peat?. In the abstract of the article it was written: ?This research was conducted in order for sewage sludge, which complies with the criteria stated in the last 2010 Sludge Regulation on Soil Pollution and its Control, to be used as a seedling growth media.? In other words Mesude was actually trying out a claim made in 2010 and see if other factors were involved in this process while, in the meantime, proving that we can use sewage sludge as a material to grow or enhance the growing of plants.  I think this is very interesting because what goes through sewer pipes is basically the type of waste that people don?t pay almost any attention at all. If you recall, I have talked about the vermicomposting project that we have done here in Turkey at our school. One of the objectives of the project was to teach the citizens that organic house waste is not actually a waste but a material that worms can use to produce organic fertilizers. What our project lacked was that we could not do anything else for the rest of the house waste. And this research is, I believe, the answer since even if they the rest of the wastes go to the sewers, they can be still used as an alternative place to grow plants. This my friends is the ultimate way to recycle, I think.

The research was conducted in Kocaeli University which is very close to the city of Istanbul. Mesude made eight different subjects and observed them. She grew tomatoes in these subjects. These subjects were grown with different percentages of peat, perlite, soil and sewer sludge. Basically, what she tried to find out was that if the amount of soil and peat changed anything about the effects of sewer sludge. She did find some results. For example, she found out that 40% peat + 50% sewer sludge + 10% perlite mixture had the best results by meanings of seed length, seed root length, and plant weight. In other words, it can be said that this mixture helped the tomatoes the most for providing an optimal place to grow.

Consequently, since I thought that this research was really interesting and wanted to share with you all. I wonder if any of your countries has ever tried to put this system in action. Because, I think it is a really big step to having a sustainable future.

REFERENCES

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/279220561_Research_on

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as_an_Alternative_Seedling_Growth_Media_to_Peat