Ecosystems suffer from nutrient pollution and expensive fertilisers. Nutrient pollution, primarily from nitrogen and phosphorus, causes eutrophication, leading to harmful algal blooms and dead zones in water bodies. Contaminated water becomes unsafe for drinking and recreation, with high nitrate levels posing health risks. It disrupts ecosystems, reducing biodiversity and altering food chains. Overuse of fertilisers also harms soil health and agricultural productivity. High fertiliser costs strain farmers financially, reducing profitability and productivity. This can lead to food security risks, especially for low-income regions. Additionally, it may drive farmers to use low-quality alternatives or expand into natural habitats, causing environmental damage.
By recovering nitrogen and phosphorus from waste streams, the NENUPHAR project aims to provide competitively priced fertilisers and other products for the food value chain while promoting cleaner soil, air, and water systems. Achieving this goal requires significant political, regulatory, and governance efforts to involve all key stakeholders. The project targets three waste streams: manure, sewage sludge, and dairy wastewaters. It plans to introduce four main innovations: a methodology for estimating N/P emissions from fertiliser application on soil, new governance models based on network governance, innovative economic and financial incentives for both public and private entities and enabling technologies for nutrient recovery from waste.
Today, our world – nature, people’s health, businesses and livelihoods, and society broadly – is facing multiple challenges. Many of those challenges come from the excessive levels of pollution, and high costs falling on farmers, as well as consumers more broadly. NENUPHAR was conceived to solve many of these problems.
It will develop tangible results and solutions, including in the form of governance models around the management and recycling of nutrients.
In short, a reduction in water pollution, cheaper fertilisers, and a major boost for Europe’s circular economy efforts in the field of agriculture. Together, these results could significantly improve environmental wellbeing, safeguard people’s health and support farmers’ livelihoods.
Once the solutions are developed and the technologies and products are scaled, the benefits of such solutions could be enormous. The reduction of nutrient pollution will directly benefit not only natural waters and aquatic ecosystems, but also people’s health and societal stability, by ensuring widespread clean drinking water sources. The improved management, recovery, and recyclability of nutrients for fertilisers will also directly support many farmers who will benefit from far cheaper and more sustainable fertiliser products. This will also support the long-term resilience of farmland ecosystems, and therefore also the stability and security of livelihoods.
1st capacity building session, 28 July 2026 The first webinar of the NENUPHAR capacity building series was held online on 28 July 2026, co-hosted with two sister
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A recent scientific study Assessing the Economic Feasibility of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Recovery Systems in European Waste Valorization Case Studies published under the NENUPHAR project explores how nutrient
