National Nutrient Reuse and Recovery Forum
On March 8, 2018, the International Institute for Sustainable Development hosted a forum to explore the recovery and reuse of nutrients in Canada.
On March 8, 2018, the International Institute for Sustainable Development hosted the National Nutrient Reuse and Recovery Forum.
The event was hosted in partnership with Environment and Climate Change Canada, and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) in Toronto.
The workshop featured speakers from MOECC who set the policy context as well as eminent Canadian academics and researchers, representatives of existing nutrient platforms described in this report and representatives from private sector technology companies.
While the workshop referred to nutrients generally, many speakers focused on phosphorus recovery, which is widely accepted as the predominant nutrient for recovery and reuse due to its limited commercial supply, vital food security implications and its predominant role in eutrophication impacts to receiving water bodies.
This workshop was motivated in part by the focus on Ontario’s circular economy legislation, and the new Lake Erie Action Plan presented by MOECC, but did present various scenarios in various regions of Canada (such as British Columbia, Quebec and Manitoba) where other drivers for phosphorus recovery and reuse and nutrient management factors were presented.