Turning food waste into sustainable soil improvers for better soil health and improved food systems

Waste4Soil envisions the development of 10 technological and methodological solutions for recycling food processing residues into local, biobased circular soil improvers for improved soil health. A user-driven standardised “Evaluation Framework” will support stakeholders from the food value chain, including waste managers, to assess their status towards food processing residues circularity and take action for recycling suitable waste streams into beneficial soil improvers. Waste4Soil will setup 7 “Soil Health Living Labs” across Europe to study the valorisation of 8 types of food processing residues (i.e., meat, fish, dairy, cereals, olive oil, wine, fruits and vegetables, and processed food).

The project focuses on assessing and improving the effectiveness of existing routes of food waste management to soil improver components, formulation and application methods by focusing on anaerobig digestion, novel Biochar production, Biophosphate processing, composting, Protein hydrolysates and AD-Microalgae. An enabling management platform will be created with a database of analytics, applications, soil health evaluations including the use of ”Internet of Things”.

• European Commission
• State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI)

• European Commission, Horizon Europe

Project coordination:

• CERTH - The Centre for Research & Technology, Greece

Involved partners:

• ANIA - Association Nationale des Industries Alimentaires, France
• LAB - University of Applied Sciences, Finland
• Soilfood, Finland
• IRTA - Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries, Spain
• University of Parma, Italy
• AREFLH - Assemblée des Régions Européenne Fruitières Légumières et Horticoles, France
• LEITAT Technological Center, Spain
• Veolia/Sede Environnement, France
• 3R- BioPhosphate Ltd., Hungary
• ITENE - Instituto Tecnológico del Embalaje, Transporte y Logística, Spain
• LEGACOOP, Italy
• WINGS ICT Solutions, Greece
• Wagenigen University, Netherlands
• Confagricoltura, Italy
• Biomasa Peninsular, Spain
• Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation, Poland
• CluBE - Cluster of Bioeconomy and Environment of Western Macedonia, Greece
• DIADYMA S.A., Greece
• KOTO, Slovenia
• AMADORI, Italy
• University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
•  Bay Zoltan Nonprofit Ltd., Hungary
• Savonia University of Applied Sciences, Finland
• CSIC - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain
• ZRS Koper - The Science and Research Centre Koper, Slovenia
• Euroquality, France
• FiBL Switzerland - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Switzerland

• Herforth-Rahmé Joelle (Department of Crop Sciences)

• Fuchs Jacques (Department of Crop Sciences)
• Gamper Cardinali Carlo (Department of Crop Sciences)
• Herren Pascal (Department of Crop Sciences)

Project partner

• cordis.europa.eu: Project on the CORDIS website

• Plant Protection - Phytopathology (Department of Crop Sciences, FiBL Switzerland)
• Vegetables & Herbs (Department of Crop Sciences, FiBL Switzerland)