The recultivation of landfills is one of the main tasks in ensuring the environmental safety of urbanized areas. The waste of old landfills contains mainly soil-like material. The contamination of soil-like materials is uneven, but the level of contamination in some parts can be within acceptable limits. If there is no contamination or if the contamination levels are considered acceptable, the material can be utilized as soil for recultivation. This study aims to evaluate the fertility of soil-like material from landfills. The parameters used to characterize fertility were the content of humus and mobile forms of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur, as well as potassium, calcium, magnesium, and pH value. The samples of soil-like material were collected in November 2021 at a landfill located in the Voroshilovsky district of Volgograd at a depth of greater than 2.5 m, where there was no or low contamination. The soil-like materials are rich in humus and nutrients. However, they contain an average amount of magnesium. This indicates the fertile potential of the material and the possibility of its use as fertile soil during recultivation. The slightly alkaline environment, high potassium content, and mobile sulfur in soil-like materials necessitate the development of measures to normalize these indicators and select plants for phytoremediation.

Keywords: landfill, soil-like material, fertility, environmental safety, humus, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium