Trenton, N.J.-Two fertilizer producers, along with other members of the industry, have agreed with New Jersey state environmental officials on the need to eliminate phosphorus in lawn-care products – and indications are that there may be others joining in the movement. “The Dept. of Environmental Projection is eager to reduce the use of phosphorus in fertilizers as much as possible,” DEP spokesman Larry Hajna told Green Markets. DEP announced during Earth Week that as part of the efforts to reduce runoff into the state’s lakes, rivers, and streams, the lawn care manufacturing industry, including Lebanon Seaboard and Spectrum Brands, is joining in the no-or-low phosphorus movement. DEP signed a memorandum of understanding, along with an agreement to establish technical groups to work with the DEP and Rutgers University’s Agricultural Experiment Station in developing a stewardship program to foster better public education and to review strategies to reduce the levels of phosphorus in fertilizers. The industry will make fertilizers with no phosphorus or reduced amounts of phosphorus available to retail centers, conduct public education programs on proper use of fertilizers, and label products accordingly. Lebanon Seaboard already has its GreenView label spring and fall fertilizers with no phosphorus, and a spring weed and feed with crabgrass preventer with no phosphorus. It was not known which Spectrum brands, including Sta-Green, Vigoro, and Bandini, might be affected. DEP also signed off on science-based standards that will greatly reduce phosphorus discharged as wastewater and stormwater in two heavily developed watersheds in northeastern New Jersey. In the meantime, environmentalists say they will soon start pressing in Ocean County for legal restrictions on the use of lawn fertilizer.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain