Marysville, Ohio-Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. doesn’t expect cutting back on phosphate in some of its lawn fertilizer products will contribute much to eliminating runoff into the nation’s waterways, according to a top company official. “It will be a minor contribution to the overall flow of phosphorus,” Rich Martinez, chief environmental officer, told Green Markets. Recently Scotts and Lebanon Seaboard joined Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the District of Columbia in an agreement to reduce phosphate in lawn fertilizers by 50 percent to help clean up Chesapeake Bay. Lebanon Seaboard has had zero phosphorus available in its Greenview slow release products for some time. Scotts’ Martinez remarked that runoff from healthy lawns is less of a concern than fertilizer being applied to off-target areas. He said what commercial or individual applicators need to do is keep the fertilizer on the lawn instead of walkways, driveways, and other hard surfaces. “We surveyed 400 homes and found residents thought water going into storm drains is treated instead of flowing directly into local streams or lakes,” Martinez reported. He said Scotts is in the process of eliminating the 3 percent phosphorus in its Turf Builder plus Halts (fertilizer plus crabgrass preventer) and Turf Builder with SummerGuard (insect control), and reducing Turf Builder and WinterGuard from 3 to 2 percent. Some of the changes have already been made, while others will take place as inventories are depleted. Scotts says this is a national program and will eventually lead to the change of all lawn products, except the specialty products such as starter fertilizer used for seeding.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain