On 10 March 2017, the European Compost Network (ECN) and Growing Media Europe (GME) organised a joined field trip for the policy advisors and assistants of MEPs dealing with the Commission’s proposal on the Fertilising Product Regulation. The trip gave an exclusive insight into growing media and compost production and an opportunity to discuss how the composting and growing media sector will be of assistance in achieving the objectives set-out by the EU Fertilising Product proposal.
The field trip started with the visit of a composting plant from IBOGEM, treating separately collected green waste from the surroundings of Antwerp to produce high quality compost, which is used as constituent in growing media. Following the production line, a growing media production site of GREENYARD, one of the leading growing media producers in Europe, was visited. The properties and the use of different input materials (compost, wood fibres, peat and coir) for the production of growing media were explained and then demonstrated in practice by visiting a tomato grower ‘Tomato Master’ at the end of the day.
Impressions and photos from the site visit can be found on our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/compostnetwork