Groen Agro Control puts focus on compost analyses

This week Groen Agro Control received the green light from the Council for Accreditation to perform analyses on organic waste streams such as compost, organic waste, green waste and sewage sludge. The laboratory received the accreditation to perform analyses on nutrients and heavy metals in products that are useful for the soil and have to comply with laws and regulations. These analyses are carried out at our laboratory in Delfgauw. Composting companies and producers of organic waste streams take samples themselves or can have them taken for a fee by Groen Agro Control or through Van de Meerakker Service BV.

Accreditation is the degree of purity of analyses issued by the Council for Accreditation to ensure that customers can blindly trust that the quality of the analyses is in order. To prevent the application of products to the soil from leading to contamination or exceeding legally permitted levels of nitrogen and phosphate, composters have them analysed first. The levels can be passed on to the Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (RVO) at their request. This way, the product is registered and the sale takes place in a responsible way.

Groen Agro Control is investing in these analyses because they believe that circular agriculture is the future.  Compost has good properties as a soil improver. An additional advantage is that the quantities of nitrogen and phosphate in compost count for half the application norms that apply to the use of fertilisers in agriculture.

Not all waste streams qualify as soil improvers. Some waste products could pose a danger due to high concentrations of undesirable compounds. In addition to the analyses they perform for composting facilities, they also assist organisations that want to have their waste products tested in order to be approved as usable raw materials for agricultural applications.

More information about the accreditation of compost analyses can be found on our website.

You can also contact Joke de Geus, product manager agriculture and grassland. Or call +31(0)15 257 25 11