Veolia and Yara signed an agreement to develop circular economy in the European food and agricultural chain by recycling nutrients and creating nutrient loops. The expert partnership integrates Veolia's access to growing volumes of recovered nutrients and expertise in handling organic materials with Yara's mineral fertilizer production expertise and crop nutrition knowledge. The partnership connects the end and beginning of today's linear food value chain and will effectively close the nutrient cycle.

Veolia and Yara will scale up nutrient recycling in three promising areas. Together, the companies will develop new business models for a circular agriculture by establishing nutrient recycling models for high quality fertilizer products, not only via existing production processes but also via local recovery, processing, distribution and sales. The companies will also create a Food-to-Agriculture value chain, by collecting and processing food surpluses in cities.

By coupling Veolia's subsidiary Sede Angibaud expertise in the organic fertilizers with Yara's knowledge in the market these resources will become organo-mineral fertilizers and/or soil improvement solutions to agriculture, that includes also the peri-urban field. Lastly, Veolia and Yara will develop new business opportunities based on industrial symbiosis. The goal is an efficient model for the management of nutrient and chemical flows, such as by-products, raw materials and waste, between industrial players.

Yara and Veolia have already set up a circular economy loop by recycling ammonia produced from composting green waste and wastewater sludges. In addition to other recovered materials, the recycled ammonia is further processed to Sodium Nitrate and reused in wastewater facilities to prevent odor and corrosion.