Reducing mushroom industry waste
The mushroom industry represents big business. For Northern Ireland, France and much of Eastern Europe in particular, it makes up an important part of the rural economy. The industry creates jobs and produces thousands of tonnes of mushrooms a year, which are then shipped to suppliers across Europe. Casing soil is used in large amounts by the mushroom industry, based mainly on peat moss. This natural resource is a special soil used for growing the mushrooms and peat soil reserves have been depleted. As a result prices of peat moss casing soil are increasing, which represents a big barrier to entry into the industry, decreasing its competitiveness, which is not in the interest of consumers. The SMS project, funded by the European Commission, has supported research into a new machine which will allow for the recycling of the soil once the yield of mushrooms has been harvested. The separator machine divides the casing soil from the spent mushroom substrate (used soil). What is left is the upper layer casing soil, which is further treated to be acceptable as casing soil again, and the lower layer compost, which can be re-used. The use of such a machine by the industry will also keep down transportation costs, which also reduces the environmental impact of the industry.
