Contextualized phosphorus recycling: potential diminution of phosphorus criticality at territory scale - Application to agricultural LCA

International audiencePhosphate rock is classified as critical raw material for the European Union's economy. It provides phosphorus (P), which is an essential element for food production and is used as a mineral fertilizer. Due to a lack of a phosphorus substitute in fertilization, recycling is presently the only solution to reduce criticality, especially for countries such as France, that has no phosphate rock reserve and thus, must depend on foreign countries for its P needs for agricultural purposes. MAFOR or fertilizer mineral/organic matter from waste can contain available phosphorus. However, the recycling of P from these deposits for agriculture involves many actors (farmers, regulators, etc.) and depends on the studied spatial scale and its context (economic, regulatory, social, etc.) which can be either constraints or drivers for P recycling. Nevertheless, these issues are not taken into account in the recycling rate used in the raw material criticality assessment nor in the LCA methods. Therefore, it is necessary to contextualize P recycling for a better understanding of phosphorus recycling, and to allow a relevant phosphorus criticality assessment and an environmental impact assessment of phosphorus recycling at a local scale. In order to achieve this, a contextualized model is developed. The goal is to be able to quantify phosphorus which would potentially be used by farmers, originated from the total available quantities of deposits, by respecting the context of the studied territory. The originality of the model lies in the integration of context-factors that can affect the use of P contained in MAFOR by farmers. As output of the model, four indicators are expected: the effectiveness and efficiency of phosphorus recycling, the dependence on phosphate mineral fertilizers imported from outside France and the contextualized balance between supply and demand in P recycling-derived fertilizers. The model gives a methodology advancement, which would improve or be a complement of the LCA tool to assess territorialized recycling scenarii. The output indicators would improve the understanding of P circularity and, help determine a suitable P recycling pathway to reduce P criticality at a territorial scale and relevant from an environmental point of view