The determinants of on-farm sewage sludge spreading

The quantity of sewage sludge requiring disposal has been for several years increasing greatly in Europe because of the progressive implementation of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive 91/271/EEC. Land application and incineration are the two most widely used options for sewage sludge disposal. The benefits and costs of each option raised –and continues to raise– much debate. Besides, the spreading of sludge on agricultural soils is not recent. And yet, there is little econometric analysis of the determinants of industrial and urban sludge spreading. The aim of the paper is to provide policy makers with an overview of the determinants of sewage sludge spreading by farmers. We investigate variables pertaining to the farmer, to the farm (economic size and location) and also to the market for farm outputs. We use an exhaustive data base, the agricultural census in France coupled with location data such as distance to the nearest sewage sludge treatment facility, population density around the farm and environmental zoning