Baltic Sea Action Group (BSAG) was launched two years ago and now steps up for the Baltic Sea. To date, the finest hour of BSAG occurred in February 2010 as the organization hosted a one-day Action Summit in order to tackle the challenges head on. The main focus of the summit was to harness the skills and energy of concerned individuals and businesses across the region.
The Baltic Sea is the most polluted sea in the world and under a massive strain from year to year. As the Baltic Sea is relatively shallow and largely enclosed, it is an especially vulnerable ecosystem. The sea has suffered decades of unchecked pollution from oil spills, nutrients and toxic dumping – not to mention wartime mines and munitions.
Taking stock of the corporate side, BSAG Secretary General Saara Kankaanrinta mentions that Kemira is one of the companies that has whole-heartedly embraced the effort of saving the Baltic Sea and is very actively involved in the process.
“Kemira is one of the best example cases where the core business and ideology of the company are very well aligned with our targets,” Kankaanrinta says.
In fact, Kemira’s business activities are playing a direct role in decreasing the wastewater load in the Baltic Sea. Almost all communities and cities within the Baltic Sea watershed clean their waste water using chemicals supplied by Kemira.
Fighting Eutrophication
In its pledge, Kemira commits to lending its expertise and research efforts to returning sludge-borne valuable nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus, safely into the natural cycle without causing eutrophication.
Aija Jantunen, General Manager of Kemira’s Municipal & Industrial segment, points out that all waste water treatment does, in fact, produce sludge.
“The more efficient the waste water treatment, the greater the sludge disposal, and sludge disposal is a growing problem,” Jantunen says, adding that without a controlled return to nature, the nutrients in sludge can drift back and eutrophicate waterways, or accumulate in landfills.
However, Kemira can make such sludge both hygienic and odorless, after which the sludge can be used in enhancing crop production in a safe manner. In Finland, sludge treated using Kemira’s Kemicond method is accepted as a solid tool for soil improvement.
“We have also developed pretreatment methods hence the heavy metal contents in sludge can be reduced, in cases where they restrict sludge use,” Jantunen adds.
Making sludge hygienic is only the first step: in the future, Kemira will focus more and more of its energy and resources on the safe recycling of the nutrients inherent in the sludge.
“Recycling nutrients is a part of our large-scale research venture at the Center of Water Efficiency Excellence (SWEET). The study yields information which can be used in the promotion of recycling.”
Text by Sami Anteroinen
This is a summary of an article published in Waterlink, Kemira´s stakeholder magazine´s issue 3/2010.