Vision

ECN’s vision is living well within the limited resources of the planet respecting the organic cycle.

Mission

Ensure that we protect soils for the next generations by:

Being Ambassadors of the organic cycle
Promoting separate collection and biological treatment of organic resources
Promoting production and use of quality assured compost and digestate
Supporting the circular economy and creating local jobs

Objectives

The objectives and the main focus of ECN are to promote corresponding visions and the adoption of sustainable systems for organic waste management through integration of strategies, technological development and improvement of practices.

FAVOURABLE LEGAL FRAMEWORK – EUROPEAN POLICY
Achieve an EU legal framework that supports separate collection, biological treatment of organic residues and production and use of quality assured compost and digestate products.
1. Achieve that obligatory separate collection of biowaste is a key element in the revised WFD within the circular economy package.
2. Achieve that BREF requirements for composting and AD facilities are both strict and realistic, allowing biological treatment facilities across Europe to remain commercially viable while respecting environmental standards.
3. Achieve a European end-of-waste status for high quality compost and digestate products.
4. Achieve a favourable position for compost and digestate in the revised Fertilizer Regulation.
5. Achieve a comprehensive waste – resource – product policy for biowaste on EU level (ABPR, WFD; FERT; REACH, ECOLABEL; LMI – Lead Market Initiative).
MARKET DEVELOPMENT
Achieve favourable market conditions across Europe for separate collection, biological treatment and use of compost & digestate products.
1. Improve market conditions for compost/digestate by facilitating increased cooperation between compost/digestate producers and users across European countries.
2. Improve market conditions for compost/digestate by facilitating increased cooperation between science, biowaste industry and other stakeholders.
3. Achieve a favourable market position of compost & digestate production and use in (nationally tendered) public procurement of waste contracts.
4. Develop a harmonised European market for compost and digestate in growing media and horticulture.
IMPLEMENTING QUALITY ASSURANCE SCHEMES
Achieve Europe wide implementation of compost and digestate quality assurance schemes, use ECN-QAS as a benchmark
1. Achieve that the ECN-QAS is used as a model for quality assurance developments e.g. End of Waste Criteria for compost and digestate products on EU level.
2. Increase the number of quality assurance schemes for compost and digestate in Europe by facilitating national scheme orgranisations.
3. Strengthen the position of ECN-QAS by an increase of ECN-QAS certified national quality assurance organisations.
4. Have in place a Europe wide reporting system on quality data for compost and digestate.
5. Include quality criteria for constituents in growing media by extending the scope of the ECN-QAS scheme.
KNOWLEDGE SHAREPOINT
Increase knowledge and know-how amongst –stakeholders-, via networking platforms, information dissemination, educational campaigns, etc.
1. Relevant stakeholders across Europe have adequate knowledge on the benefits of separate collection, biological treatment and compost and digestate use.
2. ECN offers the best networks on the European level for exchanging information about biological waste treatment, production of biogas, compost and digestate.
3. ECN is the leading European source for relevant information about biological treatment of biowaste and production of compost and digestate.
4. ECN contributes to the development of relevant courses within biological waste treatment and use of products.
MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
ECN is the leading European membership organisation on management of organic resources, representing all relevant stakeholder groups across Europe.
1. Achieve an ECN country representative in every country in Europe.
2. Achieve a continuous increase of the ECN membership across relevant stakeholder groups.
3. Achieve a continued high satisfaction among all member groups.

European Compost Network ECN/ORBIT e.V services

Quality Assurance for Compost and Digestate