In November 2022, a broad societal coalition* of government, sector, and NGO agreed that in 2050 the use of potting soil and substrates in the chain will have no negative environmental impact and will be CO2 neutral. To this end, growing media must consist of at least 90% renewable raw materials by 2050. For the professional market, the targets for 2030 still need to be determined. The agreement signatories have requested Wageningen University and Research - BU Greenhouse Horticulture to provide independent substantiation of the percentages of renewable raw materials achievable in 2030. In a joint kick-off meeting last February 2nd, the project ‘Availability of potting soil constituents 2030’ has started.
Project goal
The aim of the project is to provide reliable estimates of (a) the currently used volumes of potting soil constituents and the technically possible increase in use by the end-user until the end of 2030 and (b) the possible use as potting soil constituent and available volumes of renewable raw materials which can already play a role in the period up to the end of 2030.
In order to have the widest possible support for this study, all agreement parties are heard and involved in the collection of information and estimates. The report is expected to be published at the end of 2023.
Source: wur.nl