SOILWASTEBENEFITS

"Integrated Assessment of Soil Quality, Environmental Emissions and Agronomic Benefits from Land Application of Organic Waste Products"

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Land application of organic amendments derived from waste materials from urban, industrial or agricultural activities (organic waste products: OWP) constitutes an important practice which can be used to increase or maintain soil organic carbon contents and improve soil quality. Land application of OWP results in many environmental and agronomic effects related to increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) contents. SOC provides nutrients for plants, increases the ability of soil to retain nutrients, increases soil porosity and water holding capacity, improve the resistance of soil to erosion. Land application of OWP also has a potential for climate change mitigation through sequestration of atmospheric CO2-C in SOC. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a powerful standardised method which allows to integrate all environmental impacts associated with different waste management options. LCA is becoming the default methodological approach at national and EU level whenever industry or authorities are assessing the environmental and societal impacts of new alternative technologies. However, LCA is currently biased due to the lack of consideration of the effects of OWP land application to the soil quality. As a result, the environmental benefits of land application of OWP are systematically underrated compared with other waste management options. The main objective of this project is to develop new and more appropriate assessment methods for the effects of land application of OWP of urban origin. This will be addressed by combining fundamental biogeochemical characterisation of soil organic matter in long-term field experiments with agro-ecosystem modelling to derive parameters to develop a new LCA methodology taking all the environmental effects of OWP application on agricultural land into account. The results of the proposed project are lightly to provide new insight in both the fields of SOC dynamics, agronomic and environmental effects of OWP land application and LCA.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Researchers are analysing the environmental effects of a growing trend of using recycled organic wastes on arable land as an alternative to landfilling and incineration.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Nutrients and organic matter from urban and agricultural wastes are increasingly being used on arable land as fertilisers and for improving soil quality. It is unclear, however, what environmental impact this waste management process has, from the energy required to recycle waste to emissions and benefits to the environment.

The EU-funded project SOILWASTEBENEFITS (Integrated assessment of soil quality, environmental emissions and agronomic benefits from land application of organic waste products) used life-cycle assessment (LCA) to study the impact of applying organic wastes to land.

While standardised LCAs integrate environmental impacts of many waste management processes, current models do not take into account the effects of organic wastes on soil quality. SOILWASTEBENEFITS combined biogeochemical characterisation of soil organic matter in long-term field experiments with agro-ecosystem modelling to improve LCAs of organic waste.

Researchers first analysed the chemical composition of different organic waste products applied to soil, including the fraction of organic carbon that is available for microorganisms. They then looked at the changes in soil organic carbon content after repeatedly applying organic waste products to soil in field experiments spanning 11 years.

They found that applying compost results in fuel savings of up to 25 % with the highest application rate of composted municipal solid waste, due to reduced soil resistance for soil tillage, a benefit not usually considered.

After adding this parameter to their LCA model however, they concluded that the fuel savings are negligible for the global warming impact, when compared with energy usage and production along the entire waste life cycle (composting vs. incineration).

Integrating other environmental effects of recycling waste may further improve the LCA model and allow researchers to accurately compare different waste treatment options. For example, waste recycling by composting compared with incineration may lead to less soil erosion, or enhanced activity of soil microbes that recycle nutrients.

By quantifying the environmental effects of applying differently treated organic wastes to soil, this project's outcomes will be useful for soil researchers, farmers and policymakers alike.