Returning organic waste to the production cycle

Agroamb Prodalt SL is a rural SME working in the primary sector. Based in Lugo, Spain, it serves over 150 public and private companies and more than 250 farmers, who mainly produce forage. It provides agricultural services for farmers and manufactures organic fertilisers from biodegradable waste generated in the primary and agri-food sectors. Its process sanitises biodegradable waste and animal by-products with lime and produces organic fertilisers (turning these waste materials into resources).

It recycles various types of organic waste (such as manure and slurry, old food, mollusc shells, sewage sludge, wood ash and bio-waste) into fertilisers and soil conditioners, which are mainly used for producing forage. Using biodegradable, organic, waste-based fertilisers reduces the use of chemical fertilisers, greenhouse gas emissions and the consumption of finite resources, while increasing soil fertility and health.

The company's process is a lesser-used alternative to widely applied and well-known processes, such as composting and anaerobic digestion (biogas). It treats biodegradable waste with lime, alone or in combination with other alkaline materials for agricultural use (carbonates, wood ash, etc.).

This achieves several objectives:

• recovering or reusing biodegradable waste, returning it to the economic cycle;
• manufacturing fertilisers with a high proportion of organic matter and nutrients that regulate soil pH levels, with a lower C0₂ footprint than mineral fertilisers and with less risk of depleting natural resources.