World Soil Day 2024

The S.O.S. Soil Initiative ‘Save Organics in Soil’ invites you to celebrate the World Soil Day

Healthy Soils with Compost – The benefits of compost use on Soil Organic Matter 

Agenda

• 14:00 Opening and welcome by ECN, Stefanie Siebert, Executive Director of ECN.
• 14:10 State of the art of the EU Soil Monitoring Law (SML) and the ongoing discussions in the trilogue negotiations, Aline Granjard, ECN.
• 14:30 Navarra project 2018-2023 – Results on Soil Organic Matter from Compost Application in Italy, Marco Grigatti, University of Bologna, followed by a Q&A session.
• 15:00 Supporting projects on feeding soils with the products from the recycling of biowaste, Eva Lopez Hernandez, CIC, and Stefanie Siebert, ECN.
• 15:15 Closing remarks, Stefanie Siebert.

Location

Online.

Registration Link

https://europeancompostnetwork.my.webex.com/weblink/register/r63c6d8bec2b92cf3185c046883b8d2b6

About the speakers

Stefanie Siebert is the General Executive Director of ECN. She is a soil scientist and holds a degree in natural sciences of the Ruhr-University of Bochum. She is working for more than 10 years in the field of biowaste management.

Aline Granjard is the EU Policy Officer of ECN. Based in Brussels, she is responsible for the advocacy work on waste, resources and agricultural policies at EU level.

Eva Maria Lopez Hernandez is in charge of collaborative projects for the Italian Compost and Biogas Consortium (CIC). She is managing for CIC the two EU projects that will be presented, FER-PLAY and LIFEBIOBEST (this last one in partnership with ECN), related to the promotion of the use of compost from the recycling of bio-waste.

Marco Grigatti is an Associate Professor at the University of Bologna, specializing in Agricultural Chemistry within the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences (DISTAL https://distal.unibo.it/en/index.html). He holds a PhD in Agricultural Chemistry and his research primarily focuses on the recycling of organic matter through composting, aiming to enhance nutrient recovery and environmental sustainability. He has contributed significantly to the field with numerous publications exploring topics such as compost stability, nutrient use efficiency, and the impact of biogas digestates on plant growth. His work is recognized for advancing understanding in soil science and sustainable agricultural practices.

About S.O.S. Soil Initiative 

This international initiative S.O.S. SOIL – Save Organics in Soil, led by the European Compost Network (ECN) and the Italian Composting and Biogas Association (CIC), aims to highlight the importance of soil organic matter to encourage policy makers to develop instruments to move Europe towards implementing sustainable, climate proof soil management practices.

The main Priority Goals of the S.O.S. SOIL Initiative is to:

• Increase Soil organic matter in arable soils,
• Encourage a more efficient management of nutrients on agricultural land,
• Protect the existing stock of carbon in soils,
• Minimize further losses of carbon from cultivated carbon rich soils.

https://www.saveorganicsinsoil.org/

About the ECN

The European Compost Network is the leading European membership organisation promoting sustainable recycling practices through composting and anaerobic digestion of organic resources and safeguarding the quality and safe use of recovered organic fertilisers and soil improvers. With 67 members from 27 European countries, ECN represents more than 4,500 professionals and operators with more than 45 million tonnes of biological waste treatment capacity.