Abstract
The problem of urban waste and how to dispose of it safely without affecting human health and the environment is one of the most important problems that Iraqi cities suffer from, especially the capital, Baghdad, due to population growth and high population density. Furthermore, proper disposal methods are not followed, despite the existence of four unused waste recycling plants. Instead, waste is burned or buried, which negatively impacts the health of residents in nearby areas, especially in the informal settlements that have recently proliferated, most of which are inhabited by the poor. In addition, we have high costs for vegetable production, and the most important cost component is chemical fertilizer, the repeated use of which in the soil leads to an increase in the percentage of some undesirable elements and a deterioration of soil properties. Therefore, the experiment was conducted in cooperation with the waste recycling plant in Al-Yusufiyah (20 km southwest of Baghdad). The organic material (compost) was prepared using poultry and buffalo waste, and the sludge (sewage waste) was obtained from the Al-Rustamiyah area (15 km southeast of Baghdad). The experiment was carried out on agricultural land in the Abu Ghraib area (33 km from Baghdad), where an area of (2) dunams was equipped with greenhouses using a completely randomized block design for eggplant cultivation.