Research shows waste could be the fertilizer of the future

New research from the University of Northern British Columbia suggests that waste from municipalities and bioenergy plants can be combined to make an ideal fertilizer and help reduce the amount of material added to landfills. The study provides the first insights into the use of wood ash and biosolids as soil amendments for nurseries, forests, and mines in a northern boreal climate.

“What we found is that by combining these two waste materials, we make them more than the sum of their parts,” say UNBC Environmental Science Professor Mike Rutherford and Forestry Professor Hugues Massicotte, who both supervised the project conducted by UNBC student Nichola Gilbert. “Bioenergy ash is rich in nutrients, but low in nitrogen while biosolids are high in organic matter and nitrogen. They’re a perfect match that can increase plant growth by more than 200 percent in some soils.”

The research aimed to identify the amounts of ash and biosolids that would best enhance soils in Northern BC. Trials were undertaken to document the growth of plants in deficient soils that had been enriched only with ash, with biosolids, and with ash/biosolid combinations. The project used ash from the University’s award-winning bioenergy plant, local industries, and locally-sourced biosolids. Biosolids are defined as stabilized sewage resulting from municipal wastewater treatment plants, and are sometimes used as fertilizers.

For four months, willow and poplar cuttings were grown in two soils: one from a copper-molybdenum mine site (Gibraltar Mine north of Williams Lake), and one from a bioenergy plantation (Pacific Regeneration Technologies) near Prince George. Overall, wood ash combined with biosolids proved the most fertile.

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