Unveiling the levels, compositions, and influencing factors of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in leachate from municipal solid waste landfills of Guangxi Province, South China

Abstract To date, the leachates from municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills of south China (Guangxi province), which could be considerated as a source of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) to the environments, have received little investigation. To address this gap, 8 kinds of PBDEs were measured in the leachates taken from 15 MSW landfills in Guangxi province. The detection rates of PBDE-13, -47, -99, and -153 were 100%, while the value of PBDE-209 is only 60%, most likely due to the degradation of PBDE-209. The total concentrations of PBDEs (∑8PBDE) ranged from 0.78 to 12.43 ng·L−1. The dominant compounds of PBDE-13, -47, -99, and -209 amounted to 46.64–91.59% of the concentrations of ∑8PBDE. Redundancy analysis (RDA) results demonstrated that leachate pH had positive correlations with ∑7PBDE (except for PBDE-209) and ∑8PBDE with correlation coefficients of 0.73 (P 0.01) and 0.68 (P 0.05), respectively. Non-statistically significant but moderate impacts are obtained between the landfill age (Years and BOD5/COD) and total PBDE contents (r = 0.32–0.55, P 0.05). Similar results were also obtained in Linear Alkylbenzene Sulfonates (LAS). The total concentrations of PBDEs were primarily influenced by pH and LAS, with the interpretations of 44.0% (P = 0.032 0.05) and 38.8% (P = 0.046 0.05), respectively, but the effects of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Total Hardness (TH), Biochemical Oxygen Demand/Chemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5/COD), and Years were small and insignificant (P 0.05). These findings provide insights into the levels, compositions, and influencing factors of PBDEs in leachates from MSW landfills in south China.