Markets for waste and waste-derived fertilizers. An empirical survey

- There is a lack of aggregate data on the quantities of different materials used in agriculture at European level.
- Empirical analyses are missing on how waste markets are organized.
- Economics has not developed a clear-cut definition of waste.
- This article suggests three quality features of waste: variability, interactivity and uncertainty.
- Case study of sewage sludge spreading in France and Switzerland illustrates actors' role in market growth or collapse.

If chemical fertilizers have been extensively studied, there is a dearth of empirical knowledge on markets for waste and waste-derived fertilizers used in agriculture. This paper explores the state of the art on these markets, based on a multi-disciplinary literature review (economics, law, sociology). We first examine the particularity of waste compared to products such as chemical fertilizers in both law and economics, and point out the need to develop the concept of waste from a property rights perspective. On the supply side, we note a lack of aggregate data on the quantities of different materials used in agriculture at European level and the need to benefit from longer time series for US data on organic waste materials used in agriculture. We then study the determinants of demand for waste and waste-derived fertilizers in agriculture. We specify the need to develop research on three quality features of waste: variability, interactivity and uncertainty. The case study on sewage sludge spreading in France and in Switzerland allows us to pinpoint the role of actors in the development or disappearance of these markets.