Abstract Constructed Wetlands (CWs) are a group of effective and environmentally safe wastewater treatment systems that combine chemical, physical and biological treatment processes. These processes regulate the removal of inorganic, organic and biological pollutants from wastewater. This work presents a pilot field study carried out at Samaha wastewater treatment plant located at Al-Dakahlia province, Egypt. The present study addresses the use of some field wastes (e.g. plastic, rubber and polystyrene foam) as low cost alternative substrates to the common media in the constructed wetlands. It was noticed that after mixing the traditional used media (gravel, plastic or rubber) with polystyrene foam, the removal efficiency of pollutants was remarkably enhanced. The removal efficiency was followed by noticing the levels of biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), ammonia and phosphate in the treated wastewater. Data obtained indicated that, the removal efficiency of COD increased from 71% to 88% while for BOD and the total suspended solids, it was enhanced from 72 to 88% and from 83 to 88.5% respectively. For ammonia, the removal percentage increased from 66 to78% and phosphate reduction raised from 78% to 85%, while a slight modification of total coliform from 98.4–98.6% was found. The effect of flow rate on the removal efficiency is also studied and obtained results proved that the efficiency is inversely proportional to the flow rate and the best flow rate in this work was 2 m3/day. This improvement in removal efficiency was established based on comparison with regular treatment efficiency reported at Samaha wastewater treatment plant.

中文翻译：

---

介质变化对人工湿地系统生活污水污染物去除效率的影响

摘要 人工湿地（CWs）是一组结合化学、物理和生物处理过程的有效且环境安全的废水处理系统。这些过程调节从废水中去除无机、有机和生物污染物。这项工作展示了在位于埃及 Al-Dakahlia 省的萨马哈污水处理厂进行的试点实地研究。本研究解决了使用一些野外废物（例如塑料、橡胶和聚苯乙烯泡沫）作为人工湿地中常见介质的低成本替代基质的问题。值得注意的是，将传统使用过的介质（砾石、塑料或橡胶）与聚苯乙烯泡沫混合后，污染物的去除效率显着提高。通过观察处理后的废水中的生物需氧量 (BOD)、化学需氧量 (COD)、总悬浮固体 (TSS)、氨和磷酸盐的水平来跟踪去除效率。获得的数据表明，COD 的去除效率从 71% 提高到 88%，而 BOD 和总悬浮物的去除效率分别从 72% 提高到 88% 和从 83% 提高到 88.5%。对于氨，去除百分比从 66% 增加到 78%，磷酸盐减少从 78% 增加到 85%，同时发现总大肠菌群从 98.4% 到 98.6% 略有变化。还研究了流速对去除效率的影响，所得结果证明效率与流速成反比，本工作中的最佳流速为 2 m3/天。