Is sewage sludge/cake used to make horticultural compost?

[Paul Cleaver]

I was talking to a farmer and his dog ate something in it and was taken ill - vet diagnosed molybdenum poisoning - evil stuff

[eggsarascal]

Let's not talk 'pants'.... If ya want to know about Sewage going to land, talk to Mrs Egg.... Pm's welcome.

[easy-lift guy]

I was fairly disgusted to learn that itv was used in agricultural applications when i found out- i like to think that only as a 3rd party fertiliser- ie goes through the cows first!- at least thats what i tell myself when i'm tucking into a carrot:laugh1:

 

Revolting buisness, but i guess something has to be done with it. After all mains water supply is basically refined toilet water isn't it???

 

If the toilet water is run through RO the result should be really clean potable water:thumbup:, otherwise you maybe SOL.

easy-lift guy

[Breezeblock]

we work in quite a lot of the landfills in scotland and sometimes they get screenings in from the sewage works it is one of the most manly things i have ever seen it a mix of johnys tampons baby wipes and sani towels the lad that drops it off does it 4 times a day and doesn't wear gloves then goes back into cab and eats lunch it gives me the bolk just watching him

[tree79]

Seven trent process there's and sell the 'cake' on to farmers. I know a lot arable farmers use it on the fields. In Kent they use pulp from the paper mills (so im told).

 

I didn't know that they used cake for organic compost, guess its similar to using chicken muck

[skyhuck]

Is this an alternative to peat???

[Billy Goat]

I have a mate who works at a huge waste water treatment plant which has an anaerobic digester onsite to deal with the sludge to produce electricity and gas to be injected into the mains gas supply and yes the sludge is used in compost. It must be pasteurised first to 165 degrees centigrade prior to going into the digester. After around a week or so the cake is removed and used as a soil conditioner. It's an EU directive that any animal/human byproduct must be treated to remove harmful pathogens. Before that as per the previous post the untreated sludge could be used direct onto the fields provided it wasn't for human consumption. It was mainly used on fields of Willow trees used in biomass production. A lot of municipal green and food waste is hot composted in huge sheds and turned regularly for soil conditioner which its used on opencast and landfill reclamation site due to the amount of contaminants such as plastic etc. Your premium product is the pasteurised cake from sewage as its gone through more treatment.

[openspaceman]

Before that as per the previous post the untreated sludge could be used direct onto the fields provided it wasn't for human consumption. It was mainly used on fields of Willow trees used in biomass production.

 

and if any of you remember ARBRE it was Yorkshire waters pulling the plug that helped kill it, they wanted the asrc to dump on.

 

Still the stuff has to meet pas100 standard before it can be resold so any "contraries and it's worth a complaint.

[peatff]

We used to be able to buy if straight from the sewage plant years ago (40 or so years ago) but it did have an aroma all of it's own for a few days. It was just like a fine brown soil. My uncle would not buy new potatoes when he found they were imported from Egypt as he said they fertilise them direct from the source (crap in the field ) I think it was from service days though not based on any new evidence.

[Goaty]

I have done the skips from sewage works in the past.

One was non biodegradable things that should never go down the drain.

It was called the Rag skip

Tampons sanitary towels condoms gloves, cotton buds etc.

 

It stank and put me off my food for a good hour after smelling it.

 

The other skip was the "grit skip" it contained road gully grit and a heck of alot of undigested sweet corn shells. If it was left long enough between collection it grew marvellous tomatoes. It rarely smelt bad.

 

Sometimes it was very liquid and if you had to brake hard it went all over back of cab and drizzled on to the road.

 

It's a know fact if you work amongst sewage first hand you will be ill alot for the first few months then you become super immune. I've seen the staff working amongst it as through they are making bread!

 

The other skip was