Immobilization possibility of tannery wastewater contaminants in the tiles fixing mortars for eco-friendly land disposal

The Hazaribagh tannery area of Bangladesh is currently facing an enormous problem regarding the harmful impacts of wastewater produced from leather industries on the surrounding environment due to the presence of contaminants at a toxic level. As such, the current study aims to analyze the entrapment of tannery wastewater's pollutants inside the mortar specimens for sustainability. Two types of binding agents such as Portland Composite Cement (PCC)and Ready Mixed Dry Mortar (RMDM)were employed to prepare separate mortar pastes in which the collected tannery wastewater was used as mixing liquid. Also, five types of samples including brick walls made with only the PCC, where tiles walls and blocks constructed with both types of binding agents were built. Analytical results show that the surrogate contaminated water mixed mortar blocks possessed about 6–14% lower compressive strength than that of the blocks prepared with drinking water. Moreover, the examined heavy metals were observed below the limit of detection in the curing liquid of studied tiles walls during the whole test protocol of 360 days period. The explicit outcomes of this study might be a promising solution to minimize the effects of tannery wastewater contaminants on the environment by utilizing this wastewater as a mixing component in the tiles fixing mortar of walls and floors.