ECN-QAS Manual - European Compost Network

ECN-QAS Quality Manual

The specific aim of this ECN-QAS Quality Manual is to provide the necessary background information and standardised documentation to build up a European Quality Assurance Scheme (ECN-QAS) for composts and digestate. The Quality Manual includes the requirements for the conformity assessment of national quality assurance organisations and for composting and digestion plants.
The Quality Manual is divided in three main parts:

Part A describes the general target and structure of the European Quality Assurance Scheme (ECN-QAS).
Part B of the ECN-QAS Quality Manual specifies the ECN requirements to be met by a national quality assurance organisation (NQAO) for composting/digestion plants, which are preconditions for the described recognition procedure of an organisation performing quality assurance according to the European Quality Assurance Scheme of ECN.
Part C of the ECN-QAS Quality Manual is divided into two sections:

CI ECN-QAS for compost

CII ECN-QAS for digestate.

These sections specify requirements for the operational process management of composting and digestion, the selection of input materials and the compost and digestate quality. They include specifications for sampling and testing. They also specify requirements for product certification and declaration to ensure that the compost and digestate products are consistently fit for their intended uses. These essential elements have to be implemented into the quality assurance scheme of the national quality assurance organisation (NQAO).