OpenLobby.EU
Explore

European Federation for Agricultural Recycling

EFAR

Created in 2006, the EUROPEAN FEDERATION FOR AGRICULTURAL RECYCLING assembles and represents European companies specialising in landspreading of Biosolids.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Soil Health Law – protecting, sustainably managing and restoring EU soils

3 Nov 2023

EFAR, who represents the companies specialised in Biosolids land application, welcomes the proposal of a Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience.Indeed soil degradation is scientific evidence and creates or increases risks for food security, water quality, flooding and droughts, biomass production, carbon emissions and loss of biodiversity. Improving soil health is key to increasing their resilience to climate change which depends on their soil organic matter content, water retention and resistance to erosion. In addition healthy soils are supplying crucial environmental services such as nutrient recycling, water filtration and carbon storage. For the above mentioned reasons soils are essential to achieve the goals set by the climate adaptation and biodiversity strategies as well as the water, groundwater and nitrates Directives. Therefore EFAR agrees that it is necessary to set up a robust soil monitoring framework across the EU to monitor soil health and to measure the progress made by adopting appropriate sustainable management practices. Improvements regarding the Directive content are detailed in the attached file.
Read full response

Response to Revision of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive

28 Feb 2023

EFAR (European Federation for Agricultural Recycling) welcomes the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD) proposal and considers that it will generate a significant step toward the integration of the wastewater treatment sector in the circular economy. Indeed the production of renewable resources can be achieved through appropriate processing of wastewater and sludge. In addition to nitrogen and phosphorus recovery, the beneficial use of organic matter is a critical target to achieve. To increase the possibilities of sludge and treated water reuse while guaranteeing a better protection of the environment it is absolutely necessary to limit the discharge of hazardous substances into the sewage system. Consistency with the EU Waste Hierarchy and the zero pollution action plan will thus be reinforced. EFAR therefore fully approves the provisions of the UWWTD proposal document about tackling pollution at source and applying the polluter pays principles as well as the systematic authorizations and monitoring of non domestic discharges.This will result in a significant improvement of the sludge quality and ensure its safe use in agriculture.
Read full response

Response to Soil Health Law – protecting, sustainably managing and restoring EU soils

15 Mar 2022

EFAR welcomes the new EU soil strategy and support the objectives to ensure that, by 2050: • all EU soil ecosystems are healthy and more resilient and can therefore continue to provide their crucial services, • there is no net land take and soil pollution is reduced to levels that are no longer harmful to people’s health or ecosystems, • protecting soils, managing them sustainably and restoring degraded soils is a common standard. EFAR considers that soil is a vital resource that has to be protected. Indeed healthy soils have many advantages such as: • Producing nutritious food in sufficient quantity to feed the planet population which is due to reach 10 billion in 2050, • reducing nutrient losses and use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, • hosting biodiversity which is providing essential ecosystem services for human wellbeing, • limiting flooding, erosion and desertification, • benefiting from a higher resilience to climate change. This is all the more crucial as it has been estimated that about 60 to 70% of soils in the EU are not healthy and that every year mineral soils under cropland are losing around 7.4 million tonnes of carbon. Soils have also a key role to play in a resource-efficient and circular economy due to their capability to recycle water, carbon and nutrients. Eventually soils are a cost-effective carbon emission mitigation method with a potential to sequester between 11 to 38 MtCO2eq annually in Europe. Recycling biodegradable waste with a high organic matter content such as Biosolids has many advantages. It helps to replenish depleted soil carbon pools while improving water retention capacity and soil structure. It also enables the closing of the nutrient and carbon cycle. EFAR members have developed for a long time specific know-how to make sure that their recovery operations are undertaken in safe and sustainable conditions. Considering that organic matter is essential to soil health EFAR members are pleading for: • a ban of the incineration or landfilling of organic and biodegradable waste except when their use on land is not possible, • the definition of appropriate indicators of soil health associated with standardised analysis methods, • the identification of the contaminants that are representing a threat for soil health or/and that can impair the use of organic and biodegradable waste on land, • the prevention at source of these contaminants, • the harmonisation and setting up at EU level of quality standard for soil inputs, • regular analysis of contaminants that are potentially present in soil inputs, • determining the contaminants acceptable loading rate per type of input, • encouraging the use of sustainable fertilisers, • the integration of the use of organic and biodegradable waste in carbon farming and sustainable soil management practises, • The monitoring of soil health when organic and biodegradable waste are spread on land
Read full response