Oslo-based Yara International ASA reported on Jan. 21 that it has signed an agreement with the global resource recovery company Veolia to develop a “circular economy” in the European food and agricultural chain by recycling nutrients and creating nutrient loops. The companies said the partnership “connects the end and beginning of today’s linear food value chain and will effectively close the nutrient cycle.”
Yara and Paris-based Veolia said they will scale-up nutrient recycling in three areas. First, the companies will develop new nutrient recycling models for fertilizer products through local recovery, processing, distribution, and sales, in addition to existing production processes. The companies said they will also create a Food-to-Agriculture value chain by collecting and processing food surpluses in cities.
Lastly, Yara and Veolia said they will develop efficient models for the management of nutrient and chemical flows – such as byproducts, raw materials, and waste – between industrial players. By combining the organic fertilizer expertise of Veolia’s subsidiary, Sede Angibaud, with Yara’s fertilizer market knowledge, the companies said these resources will be used to create organo-mineral fertilizers and/or soil improvement solutions for agriculture and the peri-urban field.
“Reducing global resource depletion and nutrient loss by increasing the recycling of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus is an important task,” said Yara President and CEO Svein Tore Holsether. “The collaboration with Veolia is a contribution to our mission to responsibly feed the world and protect the planet.”
Yara and Veolia said they have already set up a circular economy loop by recycling ammonia produced from composting green waste and wastewater sludges. In addition to other recovered materials, the recycled ammonia is further processed to Sodium Nitrate and reused in wastewater facilities to prevent odor and corrosion.
Several EU countries are implanting regulations to limit waste disposal, enforce lower emissions, and mandate nutrient recovery. In addition, the new European Fertilizer Regulation (NFR) enables and incentivizes use of recovered nutrients for new crop nutrition products. Yara and Veolia said these new regulations will make large quantities of recovered nutrients available to be reused as fertilizers in agriculture. The companies said the economic potential of applying nutrient recycling to fertilizer in Europe is substantial, and potentially as high as €2 billion.
“We are delighted that Yara has chosen Veolia to support its circular economy strategy,” said Veolia Chairman and CEO Antoine Frérot. “Veolia and Yara already aim to have several new initiatives fully operational by 2024, including the launch of new fertilizer products and the startup of nutrient recovery installations in several major European cities. The collaboration between our companies is a step closer to effectively closing the nutrient cycle.”
As part of the agreement, Yara and Veolia also announced the formation of a new Nutrient Upcycling Alliance, which the companies said will promote and implement an environmentally sustainable and economically viable food system in the EU by developing business-driven projects. Yara and Veolia said they are inviting farmers’ associations, food brands, retailers, municipalities, government bodies, and other industries managing waste streams to join the alliance, which they describe as a “fundamental redesign of the food value chain.”