On 8 July, leading quality managers from compost and digestate quality assurance organisations across Europe met at Vlaco’s office in Mechelen, Belgium, to discuss potential contaminant levels in input materials for composting and anaerobic digestion.
Three presentations were given to demonstrate how different national quality assurance organisations monitor contaminants in materials entering composting and anaerobic digestion plants. The different approaches to monitoring were discussed, and the analysis results demonstrated that an indicative positive list for input materials for composting and anaerobic digestion would be the most effective way to prevent the dilution and contamination of the final compost and digestate products.
In addition, Stefanie Siebert, the Quality Manager of ECN, presented the revision of the quality manual of the European Quality Assurance Scheme ‘ECN-QAS’.
This has been updated in relation to the limit values for different impurities (glass, metal, and plastics) in the Fertilising Products Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2019/1009), as well as the European analytical standards under the standardisation mandate M/564 that are due to be officially published in 2027.
The 4th edition of the ECN-QAS Quality Manual is available here.