Guideline to promote quality compost and digestate

One of the products of the anaerobic digestion process is digestate which can be used in agriculture. The use of digestate from anaerobic digestion in agriculture promotes sustainable farming practices, improves soil health, and enhances crop productivity while offering economic and environmental benefits. By recycling nutrients and organic matter, it helps create a more circular and sustainable agricultural system. The quality of digestate from anaerobic digestion is important for ensuring its effectiveness as a fertilizer, protecting the environment, safeguarding human and animal health and maintaining public trust. High-quality digestate maximizes the benefits of anaerobic digestion and contributes to sustainable agricultural practices. The quality requirements for digestate from anaerobic digestion can encompass nutrient content, pathogen reduction, contaminant levels, pH and salinity, moisture content, odour, and appearance. Adherence to these requirements ensures that digestate is safe and effective for agricultural use, promoting soil health and crop productivity while minimizing environmental risks.

In the framework of the LIFE BIOBEST project, ‘Guideline to promote quality compost and digestate’ was published. The guideline provides insights about the processing options (composting, anaerobic digestion), analysis of product characteristics (compost, digestate), quality assurance systems and the quality assurance scheme of the European Compost Network (ECN-QAS). The guideline aims to support upper-level authorities in streamlining policy measures and lower-level authorities in implementing effective solutions. The guidelines can serve as crucial resources for municipalities, policymakers, waste hauliers, recycling entities, and technical practitioners. It can help stakeholders in different stages of bio-waste implementation in planning and managing bio-waste and digestate.