Bio-Based Waste’ Substrates for Degraded Soil Improvement—Advantages and Challenges in European Context

Abstract

The area of degraded sites in the world is constantly expanding and has been a serious environmental problem for years. Such terrains are not only polluted, but also due to erosion, devoid of plant cover and organic matter. The degradation trends can be reversed by supporting remediation/reclamation processes. One of the possibilities is the introduction of biodegradable waste/biowaste substrates into the soil. The additives can be the waste itself or preformed substrates, such composts, mineral-organic fertilizers or biochar. In EU countries average value of compost used for land restoration and landfill cover was equal 4.9%. The transformation of waste in valuable products require the fulfillment of a number of conditions (waste quality, process conditions, law, local circumstances). Application on degraded land surface bio-based waste substrates has several advantages: increase soil organic matter (SOM) and nutrient content, biodiversity and activity of microbial soil communities and change of several others physical and chemical factors including degradation/immobilization of contaminants. The additives improve the water ratio and availability to plants and restore aboveground ecosystem. Due to organic additives degraded terrains are able to sequestrate carbon and climate mitigate. However, we identified some challenges. The application of waste to soil must comply with the legal requirements and meet the end of use criteria. Moreover, shorter or long-term use of bio-waste based substrate lead to even greater soil chemical or microbial contamination. Among pollutants, “emerging contaminants” appear more frequently, such microplastics, nanoparticles or active compounds of pharmaceuticals. That is why a holistic approach is necessary for use the bio-waste based substrate for rehabilitation of soil degraded ecosystems.