Impact

Turning waste
into impact.

Organic waste contains valuable nutrients. Yet today, we dispose of these nutrients locally, while importing mineral fertilisers from around the world.

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foom changes that.

We turn organic waste into local fertiliser, cutting emissions, restoring soil health, and strengthening resource resilience all at the same time.

01 Cutting emissions

A linear system emits at both ends.

Food waste is collected, transported and treated. At the same time, new fertiliser is manufactured to replace the nutrients that were just discarded.

Yet emissions at both ends are remarkably similar in scale.

1.1 bn t CO₂e from treating and disposing of food waste globally each year⁽¹⁾

1.1 bn t CO₂e from the global synthetic nitrogen fertiliser supply chain⁽²⁾

02 Restoring soil health

Nutrients feed a crop. Organic matter feeds the soil that grows it.

Synthetic fertilisers deliver nutrients fast, but only ~50% of the nitrogen applied is taken up by the crop.⁽³⁾ Much of the rest escapes into water and air or acidifies the soil it passes through. Acidic soils hold fewer nutrients and inhibit root growth.

2 in 3 hectares of the world's maize and wheat land sit below 2% soil organic carbon.⁽⁴⁾ Below that level, soil holds less water, retains fewer nutrients and erodes more easily. Declining yields follow.

Where farms can afford it, they compensate with more nitrogen. It can support yields for a season, but deepens acidification and adds no organic carbon. Where they cannot, yields simply stay low.

Either way, the carbon deficit remains — and each season's fix makes the next one more necessary.

Only ~50% of the nitrogen applied is taken up by the crop⁽³⁾

2 in 3 hectares of the world's maize lack soil organic carbon⁽⁴⁾

03 Reducing dependency

The nutrients Europe farms with come from somewhere else.

Europe relies heavily on global markets for fertilisers and their raw materials. This makes farmers vulnerable not only to shortages, but also to price shocks caused by disruptions far beyond Europe. Because fertiliser is a globally traded commodity, disruption anywhere can move prices everywhere.

The Strait of Hormuz shows how quickly this dependency can be felt. The EU buys only a small share of its nitrogen fertiliser directly from the Middle East. Yet after the Strait closed, EU nitrogen fertiliser prices were 71% higher than the 2024 average.⁽⁶⁾

~30% of nitrogen fertilisers consumed in the EU depend on imports.⁽⁵⁾

~68% of phosphate fertilisers consumed in the EU depend on imports.⁽⁵⁾

~85% of potash fertilisers consumed in the EU depend on imports.⁽⁵⁾

Closing the loop

One local loop. Three systemic impacts.

The nutrients are already here. foom recovers them from organic waste and turns them into high-quality organic fertiliser, right where the waste occurs, within two days.

Waste becomes a local resource.

Local resources build resilience.

01 Cutting emissions
Up to 80% lower emissions than treating the waste (with the current EU mix) and manufacturing fertiliser separately
02 Restoring soil health
~90% organic carbon in the foom fertiliser for long-term soil health with the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium plants need today to grow already included.
03 Reducing dependency
More than 90% of nutrients stay in the local loop, applied in the region they came from

Sources

(1) https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-10/food-waste-landfill-methane-10-8-23-final_508-compliant.pdf; https://www.compostnetwork.info/download/soil-structure-carbon-storage/; https://zerowasteeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ZWE_Delft_Oct21_Waste_Incineration_EUETS_Study.pdf

(2) Menegat, S., Ledo, A. & Tirado, R. (2022): Greenhouse gas emissions from global production and use of nitrogen synthetic fertilisers in agriculture. Scientific Reports 12, 14490. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-18773-w

(3) Lassaletta, L. et al. (2014): 50 year trends in nitrogen use efficiency of world cropping systems. Environ. Res. Lett. 9, 105011. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/9/10/105011; Guo, J. H. et al. (2010), Science 327, 1008, DOI: 10.1126/science.1182570; Zhu, Q. et al. (2020), Environ. Pollut. 256, 113145

(4) Oldfield, E. E., Bradford, M. A. & Wood, S. A. (2019): Global meta-analysis of the relationship between soil organic matter and crop yields. SOIL 5, 15–32. DOI: 10.5194/soil-5-15-2019

(5) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52022DC0590