Quality assurance schemes for compost and digestion residuals established themselves in the last 15 years successfully in various European Member States and contributed well for the sustainable recycling of organic waste. Nevertheless the running revisions of various environmental and agricultural directives at the Commission and the EU’s free trade principle advice to develop consistent quality standards for compost and digestion residuals. 

The example of the advanced countries clearly shows that effective biowaste treatment has to include quality standards and their control in order to guarantee environmentally safe application and successful marketing and markets. On the basis of existing experiences in countries with running quality assurance schemes the European Compost Network ECN develops at present a European Quality Assurance Scheme (ECN-QAS) for compost.