IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/caa/jnlswr/v14y2019i2id36-2018-swr.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Present restrictions of sewage sludge application in agriculture within the European Union

Author

Listed:
  • Hana Hudcová

    (T.G.M. Water Research Institute, Brno Branch Office, Brno, Czech Republic
    Department of Applied Ecology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic)

  • Jan Vymazal

    (Department of Applied Ecology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic)

  • Miloš Rozkošný

    (T.G.M. Water Research Institute, Brno Branch Office, Brno, Czech Republic)

Abstract

The use of sludge in agriculture within the European Union (EU) is currently regulated only by the limits of heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb and Zn) listed in Council Directive 86/278/EEC. This document is now more than 30 years old. Several European countries have introduced more stringent requirements in comparison with the directive, and have adopted limits for concentrations of other heavy metals, synthetic organic compounds and microbial contamination. The paper provides an overview of the current limits of these substances in sewage sludge and concentration limits of heavy metals in soil intended for sludge application, together with applicable laws and regulations in European Union countries. There is a need to update these regulations taking into account the current risks associated with the application of sludge to agricultural land, with the possibility of using ecotoxicological tests to assess the risks. A wide range of technologies for sewage sludge processing is used in EU countries. The predominant choice is a direct application in agriculture followed by composting. The use of sewage sludge in agriculture in 2014 and 2015 in 13 EU countries that provided data amounted to 22.6% (2014) and 22.1% (2015) of produced sludge and 23.3% (2014) and 23.1% (2015) of sludge disposed. It is also highly variable within EU countries ranging between zero (Malta, Slovenia, Slovakia) and 80% (Ireland). Over 50% of sewage sludge is used in agriculture in Bulgaria according to 2015 data.

Suggested Citation

  • Hana Hudcová & Jan Vymazal & Miloš Rozkošný, 2019. "Present restrictions of sewage sludge application in agriculture within the European Union," Soil and Water Research, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 14(2), pages 104-120.
    • Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlswr:v:14:y:2019:i:2:id:36-2018-swr
    DOI: 10.17221/36/2018-SWR
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://swr.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/36/2018-SWR.html
    Download Restriction: free of charge
    File URL: http://swr.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/36/2018-SWR.pdf
    Download Restriction: free of charge
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17221/36/2018-SWR?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Emanuela Bozzini, 2023. "Laggard by Design: The Case of the Implementation of the EU Directive on the Agricultural Use of Sewage Sludge in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-18, December.
    2. Monika Jakubus, 2024. "Current Trends in Sustainable Sewage Sludge Management—A Case Study for Poznań County, Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-21, June.
    3. Alexandra Leclerc & Etienne Berthet & Konstantin Stadler & Richard Wood & Alexis Laurent, 2023. "Toward global and national toxicity footprints," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(6), pages 1521-1537, December.
    4. Zygmunt Kowalski & Agnieszka Makara & Joanna Kulczycka & Agnieszka Generowicz & Paweł Kwaśnicki & Józef Ciuła & Anna Gronba-Chyła, 2024. "Conversion of Sewage Sludge into Biofuels via Different Pathways and Their Use in Agriculture: A Comprehensive Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-28, March.
    5. G Tassinari & S Boccaletti & C Soregaroli, 2023. "Recycling sludge in agriculture? Assessing sustainability of nutrient recovery in Italy," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 50(5), pages 1633-1658.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:caa:jnlswr:v:14:y:2019:i:2:id:36-2018-swr. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ivo Andrle (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cazv.cz/en/home/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.