5 april 2024
Substrate from professional horticulture can now be reused as a raw material for potting soil, garden soil or garden compost with the RHP Consumer quality mark. To do this, the spent substrate must meet the quality mark requirements.
It was decided to first gain experience with products for consumers. With these experiences, it will be possible in the future to assess whether ‘spent substrate is also suitable for other fields of application.
RHP-certified, spent substrate as a raw material must meet the quality mark requirements. These are described in the new module 435 ‘Spent substrate’, which was added during the annual update of the RHP product certification scheme on 1 February. When taking the substrate, information about it is written down jointly by the grower and the certified company. There are also requirements for storage and transport. When processing the spent substrate, there is a maximum dosage which follows from e.g. chemical product analyses. Sanitation is the most important treatment to meet the phytosanitary requirements. Such a process is necessary because spend substrate is phytosanitary risky due to possible plant diseases and weeds. Attention is also paid to human pathogens and pesticide residues.
Spent substrate is one of the new certified products and more are being added over time. Raw material and substrate producers have been gaining years of experience with new raw materials. RHP supports the affiliated, certified companies with research into the properties of the renewable substrate raw materials while maintaining the quality and safety of the products.
