The European Sustainable Phosphorous Platform (ESPP) has engaged with IFOAM Organics Europe and the EU project RELACS (Replacing Contentious Inputs in Organic Farming Systems) to identify which recycled nutrient products could be acceptable or desirable as inputs to organic farming.
The EU organic farming Regulation 2018/848 specifies as a principle (Art.6) “recycling of wastes and by-products of plant and animal origin as input in plant and livestock production”. The Organic Farming movement also has concerns about not using input materials which facilitate intensive farming, agronomic behaviour of recycled fertilisers, needs for different nutrients, chemicals used and LCA of recycling processes, possible contaminants. ESPP has submitted, for consideration by IFOAM and RELACS experts, twenty Fact Sheets, prepared by companies operating nutrient recycling processes, presenting product case studies with different recycled nutrient products, including ash-recovered materials, struvites, biochars/pyrolysis, P, N, K, S and Fe materials.
Source: ESPP – European Sustainable Phosphorous Platform