Dear all,
there's probably a lot that could be said about the EU resolution on recource efficiency, but the good news is: the intended P recovery is now part of "our" EU policy:



src: www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?p...223+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

Who would have thought that the money/progress comes from the demand-for-organic-fertilisers-side? Sanitation, made possible by a demand for nutrients, not for sanitation as such? Could this be a future option?

Thank you very much for that information.
Now we have to see how the european countries translate that text in national legislation.
It could be interesting to see what is done in every country.
Good news

Emmanuel
Ecodomeo

Dear Emmanuel,
Dear all,

In Belgium, we are a group aiming at developing ecological sanitation practice. The main problem we have is the absence of legal output for the products of sanitation. In compost-treatment plants, people in charge don't want fecal matter because of hygiene risks. A project to make safe compost based on fecal sludge and/or product from vacuum toilets to be spread on organic matter like straw is being planed with university research, but funding is still missing.

No legal framework exist for urine application but it would fall in the sludge legislation, wich means that the products have to be regulary tested, so money and big infrastructure are needed, wich is difficult for small-pilot-project.

It seems to be the same in several european countries. As far as I know, urine application exist in Germany only for exceptional research goal (is there any hope that the project would lead to a broader legal application of urine in Germany? Are there relevant outputs that would lead to economical treatment of urine?), and in Sweden under fecal sludge legislation.

Without legal output, there is not much hope of development. Are there any people working in ecological sanitation in EU here who would have hope of development? Is there yet a group thinking about SuSan in Europe? Or the only way would be to enhance the existing infrastructure to recover P in sludge or even in the ashes? Separation is good in theory, but can it be put into practice at large scale in Europe?

You might be interested in the thesis of Meinzinger about resource efficiency of sanitation :
www.susana.org/lang-en/library?view=ccbk...p;type=2&id=1152

Thanks in advance for all relevant information,

With my best regards,

Geoffroy Germeau

Dear Geoffroy,

I agree what you say on the lack of a real legislation.
But I am sure that a network like SuSanA can do proposal at european level to implement sustainable pilot projects that can help us in our national action to develop ecological sanitation.
The problem is how we can do it ? Nobody is in charge of that subject.
It could be the start for creating a SuSanA group named "Ecological sanitation in EU" Or "P reuse projects in EU" or "P recovery action group".
Easy to say, long and difficult to start.
I hope that we will find a way to act to be active in that subject and not dependent to big water companies.

Regards

Emmanuel
Ecodomeo

Reading up on the latest CEEP newsletter on P-recovery (src: www.ceep-phosphates.org/Files/Newsletter/ScopeNewsletter91.pdf), I would like to know if anyone of you out there is going to attend the

"1st European Sustainable Phosphorus Conference 2013 (ESPC2013)"

on 6 and 7 March 2013, which will take place at Square Brussels in Belgium?

I missed the deadline and the conference is limited to 250 participants only, but the conference seems to be very promising as it includes two topics on P-recycling from wastewater: www.phosphorusplatform.org/espc2013/topic5.html

I am also interested in the experiences from Japan which seem to be so much different from the wait&see approach we have in the EU: www.phosphorusplatform.org/espc2013/topic18.html

(I've seen that SEI, WASTE and Aqua4All are going to attend - anyone else? And would those attending be willing to share their impressions on this forum? Bedankt!)