Across Europe, underused organic waste streams hold great potential for creating new, valuable resources. LANDFEED addresses this gap by transforming underutilised waste from the agro-food industry, forestry and urban areas into innovative bio-based fertilisers, supporting sustainable farming and reducing environmental impacts.
This article gathers LANDFEED’s regeneration-focused insights to explain how bio-waste and other organic residues can become valuable resources for more sustainable agriculture.
LANDFEED’s Approach: From Waste to Bio-Based Fertilisers
LANDFEED transforms underutilised waste streams into bio-based fertilisers and develops a new generation of bio-based fertiliser coatings. These coatings are designed to control nutrient release, helping improve fertiliser efficiency while reducing nutrient losses and their impact on water resources.
The approach aligns with EU ambitions for a more circular bioeconomy, where biological resources, residues and organic waste are used to create sustainable alternatives to fossil-based products.
Why Bio-Based Fertilisers Matter
LANDFEED’s approach aims to deliver several environmental and agricultural benefits:
- Better nutrient efficiency. Controlled nutrient release can help plants access nutrients more effectively and reduce nutrient losses.
- Healthier soils. LANDFEED aims to contribute to restoring soil health and supporting soil biodiversity.
- More sustainable materials. Bio-based coatings can provide alternatives to conventional fossil-based materials used in fertiliser applications.
- Lower environmental impact. Valorising underused waste streams keeps valuable resources in use while supporting a more circular agricultural system.
These benefits link sustainable agriculture with the circular bioeconomy in a direct and practical way.
LANDFEED Use Cases Across Europe
LANDFEED works through five use cases in Spain, France, Greece, Italy and Poland, each focusing on a different type of underused waste: HORECA waste, animal waste, olive oil residues, multiple waste streams and dairy waste.
Each use case explores technologies and processes suited to its particular feedstock, demonstrating different ways of recovering nutrients and producing bio-based fertilisers and other valuable products. Together, the five use cases act as real-world demonstrators for locally driven circular solutions.
Local Waste, Local Value
LANDFEED places locally driven solutions at the centre of its approach. By valorising waste through regional value chains, the project aims to turn locally available resources into useful agricultural products and demonstrate solutions that could be replicated in other European regions.
Through LANDFEED, underused waste can become a resource for local circular value chains rather than being treated solely as a burden.
Why Clean Inputs Matter
The quality and characteristics of waste streams are important for developing safe and effective bio-based fertilisers. Across its use cases, LANDFEED partners select, collect and characterise different feedstocks before applying the appropriate recovery and processing technologies.
Understanding these materials and how they can be processed is an important step towards developing fertiliser products that are effective, safe and suitable for agricultural use.
LANDFEED in Action
Rather than following one single process, each use case develops and tests solutions tailored to its local waste stream. Across the project, activities include:
- Selecting and characterising underused waste streams;
- Recovering nutrients and other valuable components;
- Producing and optimising bio-based fertilisers;
- Developing advanced bio-based coatings for controlled nutrient release;
- Testing the resulting solutions under relevant agricultural conditions.
This process helps move innovative solutions from research towards practical application.
The Innovators Behind LANDFEED
LANDFEED brings together researchers, engineers, industry partners and other actors across the fertiliser value chain. The project combines expertise in waste valorisation, nutrient recovery, fertiliser development, agriculture and circular business models.
Their work bridges research and practice and supports Europe’s broader sustainability goals.
Environmental Benefits of Regeneration
Poor management of waste can contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, pollution and the depletion of natural resources. At the same time, conventional fertiliser use can contribute to nutrient losses and impacts on water resources.
By recovering nutrients from underused waste streams and developing more efficient bio-based fertilisers, LANDFEED aims to lower greenhouse gas emissions, protect water resources and improve soil health.
Regeneration Unlocks Bio-Waste Potential
Regeneration goes beyond recycling. It creates new value from materials that might otherwise remain underused and brings them back into productive use.
LANDFEED shows how circular and locally driven solutions can connect waste management with more sustainable fertiliser production, helping turn underused resources into valuable inputs for European agriculture.
