Contexte

One of the most important legislative drives is the new EU fertilizer product regulation, that was adopted in 2019. It brings organic fertilizers and soil improvers in the same legislative framework with mineral-based fertilizers. This allows them to be exported freely in the EU internal market. These fertilizers are marked with an CE-label. However, organic fertilizers and soil improvers made from sewage sludge cannot be CE marked. The Regulation also allows for products manufactured and used on the basis of national legislation. The legislation is still evolving and there are still a number of factors holding back the development. The challenge of organic and recycled-based fertilizer products is that they are affected by a number of different pieces of legislation such as waste, fertilizer, product, chemical and agriculture. All of these are still under development both at the national and EU-level. However, the existing legislation already provides the adequate framework for the safe use of organic and recycled-based fertilizers, soil improvers and nutrients. It is true that the legislation has several important areas for development, such as EU-level legislation on the sludge is being out of date, but they are under construction.  Bigger problem actually seems to be their bad reputation, as their quality is assumed to be poor and users don't have updated information about their pros and cons. Obtaining public approval is essential to increase their use. The properties of the products should be better communicated. We believe that lower footprint of recycled fertilizer products could be a competitive advange compared to mineral-based fertilizer products.