Serving over 8 million customers across the heart of the UK, stretching from the Bristol Channel to the Humber, and from mid-Wales to the East Midlands, Severn Trent Water (STW) generates over 700,000 tonnes of treated biosolids every year.

Biosolids play an important role in land regeneration and agricultural improvement. With improved treatment methods, biosolids are fast becoming a cost effective and high quality alternative to manufactured fertilisers.

Severn Trent Water ensures that the biosolids produced and applied on agricultural land meet all regulatory requirements. The Sludge (Use in Agriculture) Regulations 1989 impose a statutory requirement to analyse soil for heavy metals before spreading Biosolids to agricultural land. This ensures that soil heavy metal concentrations are kept below defined limits.
 
The Safe Sludge Matrix 2001 (Guidelines for the application of sewage sludge to agricultural land) is an agreement made between Water UK and the British Retail Consortium (representing the high street supermarkets).  It deals with the potential risk from pathogens when biosolids are spread to land.  A wide range of crops are allocated to one of six categories with minimum intervals between spreading and harvest

The pages in the recycling section cover the key facts and frequently asked questions about the biosolids application to agricultural land. The pages on the left hand menu contain outline information on the product and the right hand menu offers the download of key literature and presentation material.