Waste4Soil serves a double purpose: reducing the percentage of food waste in Europe by recycling food-processing residues and turning them into soil improvers to enhance soil health across Europe. Waste4Soil aims to do so through a multi-actor approach at regional level. 7 living labs will be studied, having different cultural and geographical aspects.

The project involves 28 partners from 9 European countries and Switzerland and has been funded to the tune of €7 million. Waste4Soil envisions the development of 10 technological and methodological solutions for recycling food processing residues from the food industry into local, biobased circular soil improvers for improved soil health. A user-driven standardised Evaluation Framework will support stakeholders from the food value chain, including waste managers, to assess their status towards food processing residues circularity and act for recycling suitable waste streams into beneficial soil improvers. To ensure collaborative research and innovation, Waste4Soil will setup 7 Soil Health Living Labs across Europe, in Greece, Finland, Spain, Poland, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia, to study the valorisation of 8 types of food processing residues (i.e., meat, fish, dairy, cereals, olive oil, beverages (wine), fruits and vegetables, and processed food).

Waste4Soil project aims at developing applicable recycling technical pathways to transform FPR into soil improvers, through a circular, systemic and multi actor approach at regional level involving all food chain actors, thereby closing specific loops (nutrients, organic matter, water). To optimize FPR valorisation from source, the Waste4Soil project will design a waste management guideline to understand and conserve FPR’s streams, while avoiding external pollutant and deterioration. To be relevant, the whole soil improvers production system must be in line with farmers’ needs and with food industry resources, while being environmentally sustainable, economically viable and socially acceptable. This last point implies a genuine involvement of citizens in the project implementation. The project aims at supporting food systems with easy and clear solutions, processes and strategies, going beyond the specific location and its pedo-climatic conditions, the local waste management systems or regulation. To do so, standards will be developed to answer practitioners needs and ease the application of the solutions. The project will cover a great variety of FPR: fruits and vegetables, olive oil residues, wine industry, meat industry by-products, dairy products, cereals, and fish. Covering a broad range of FPR is key, because they do not have the same impacts and potential. FPR will be characterised in terms of bulk composition, also to determine the preferred way to valorise them. The developed methodology is meant to be spread to improve FPR knowledge across Europe.

More information:
Dr. Tuomo Eskelinen, Ph.D, tuomo.eskelinen(a)savonia.fi, tel. +358 44 785 6613
Dr.Sc.Agr. Ardita Hoxha-Jahja, ardita.hoxha-jahja(a)savonia.fi, tel. +358 44 785 6600
Savonia University of Applied Sciences, PO Box 6 (Microkatu 1), 70201 Kuopio FINLAND