Fredericton, N.B.-A soil and land resource scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is working on turning pulp residue from pulp and paper mills into fertilizer. “We’re sitting on a gold mine here, in my opinion,” declared Sherif Fahmy, talking about the thousands of tons of pulp waste that ends up in landfills. His research over the last 11 years testing the effects of pulp residue on legume, potato, and grain growth has found that such wastes as sawdust, bark, and effluent from pulp and paper mills improved water retention in the soil, prevented erosion, and increased organic content, while at the same time boosting crop yield. Because of Fahmy’s research, Envirem Technologies Inc. of New Brunswick, which specializes in industrial and organic waste recycling, is using forestry residuals to produce commercial composts as a fertilizer replacement. “It’s a very clean, single product, that you can use to develop high quality composting and additives for potting soils and top soils,” says Envirem General Manager Bob Kiely. At the same time, the Canadian government is putting up $1.6 million to help with the construction of an anaerobic digestion facility at Leamington, Ont., to transform agricultural waste from local farms, greenhouses, and processing plants into electricity and fertilizer. Seacliff Energy Inc., which will use the federal repayable funding to install the digester, said the facility, which generates methane to power electrical turbines and generates waste residue for fertilizer, will be up and running this fall. It will create 10 jobs during construction, plus three full-time and one part-time during operation. Chatham-Kent-Essez MP Dave Van Kesteren said Ottawa hopes the project will pave the way for similar facilities to be introduced into individual farms and local communities. There are 10,000 acres of greenhouses and five major food process plants within 50-km.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain