IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i4p1648-d492818.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Recycling and Reuse of Sediments in Agriculture: Where Is the Problem?

Author

Listed:
  • Giancarlo Renella

    (Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padua, Viale dell’Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Italy)

Abstract

Though suggested by international conventions for a long time, there are still several technical and legislative limitations to a complete reuse and recycling of dredged sediments. In particular, reuse of unpolluted sediments can be practiced, whereas sediment recycling is still affected by several downsides, and a significant proportion of the recycled fine sediments has no practical use and must be landfilled. However, the silty clayey fraction of the recycled sediments is rich in organic matter and macro- and micronutrients useful for plant growth. Nevertheless, sediment recycling in agriculture is not possible, even in non-food agricultural sectors, due to the lack of a permissive legislation and of consolidated supply chains. In addition to plant nutrients, the silty-clay sediment fraction may also accumulate organic and inorganic pollutants, and while the organic pollutants can be effectively biodegraded, metals and metalloids may concentrate at concentrations higher than the limits set by the environmental and agricultural legislations. In this paper, I briefly summarize the scientific evidence on the potential reuse and recycling of sediments in agriculture, and I discuss the main reasons for hindrance of sediment recycling in agriculture. I also present evidence from a real industrial biodegradation process that produces bioremediated fine sediment fractions with suitable properties as a mineral ingredient for plant-growing media. I propose that nutrient-rich recycled sediments could be reconsidered as a component material category in the new EU regulation on fertilizers.

Suggested Citation

  • Giancarlo Renella, 2021. "Recycling and Reuse of Sediments in Agriculture: Where Is the Problem?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-12, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:1648-:d:492818
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1648/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1648/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Davide Tonini & Hans G. M. Saveyn & Dries Huygens, 2019. "Environmental and health co-benefits for advanced phosphorus recovery," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 2(11), pages 1051-1061, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Keith Torrance & Richard Alastair Lord & Alasdair Hamilton & Paul Berry, 2023. "Repurposing Dredged Canal Sediment for Topsoil at Bowling, Scotland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-12, June.
    2. Laura Ferrans & Alexander Nilsson & Frank Schmieder & Divya Pal & Mahboubeh Rahmati-Abkenar & Marcia Marques & William Hogland, 2022. "Life Cycle Assessment of Management Scenarios for Dredged Sediments: Environmental Impacts Caused during Landfilling and Soil Conditioning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-17, October.
    3. Francesca Vannucchi & Cristina Macci & Serena Doni & Vincenzo Longo & Francesca Ugolini & Grazia Masciandaro & Eleonora Peruzzi, 2022. "Posidonia -Based Compost and Dredged Sediment in Growing Media Improve Tolerance and Nutrient Uptake in Ornamental Plants," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-14, November.
    4. Nikafkar, Nasrin & Alroaia, Younos Vakil & Heydariyeh, Seyyed Abdollah & Schleiss, Anton J., 2023. "Economic and commercial analysis of reusing dam reservoir sediments," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PB).
    5. Aigerim Mamirova & Valentina Pidlisnyuk & Pavel Hrabak & Pavlo Shapoval & Asil Nurzhanova, 2024. "Biochar-Supported Phytoremediation of Dredged Sediments Contaminated by HCH Isomers and Trace Elements Using Paulownia tomentosa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-20, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. He, Chao & Yang, Lu & Cai, Bofeng & Ruan, Qingyuan & Hong, Song & Wang, Zhen, 2021. "Impacts of the COVID-19 event on the NOx emissions of key polluting enterprises in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    2. 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.
    3. Camila Ester Hollas & Alice Chiapetti Bolsan & Bruno Venturin & Gabriela Bonassa & Deisi Cristina Tápparo & Daniela Cândido & Fabiane Goldschmidt Antes & Matias B. Vanotti & Ariel A. Szögi & Airton Ku, 2021. "Second-Generation Phosphorus: Recovery from Wastes towards the Sustainability of Production Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-30, May.
    4. Andy Yuille & Shane Rothwell & Lynsay Blake & Kirsty J. Forber & Rachel Marshall & Richard Rhodes & Claire Waterton & Paul J. A. Withers, 2022. "UK Government Policy and the Transition to a Circular Nutrient Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-19, March.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:1648-:d:492818. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.