The new method of creating fertile soil from processed organic wastes will make it possible to restore soils in areas north of the Arctic Circle, which have been degraded by erosion and climate change and reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, Krasnoyarsk Science Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences reports.    

The soil-like substratum is based on straw-and-vegetable-tops compost, produced by the slow processing of organic material.

“We create an analogue of fertile soil and ‘mineral water’ from what is usually regarded as rubbish. Special installations rapidly process wastes into a nutrient solution that we use to grow juicy salad,” Senior Research Fellow at the Biophysics Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergey Trifonov said.     

Scientists note that the use of this fertile soil by Arctic regions in their own closed ecosystems will make them independent from supplies and able to process organic wastes without inflicting damage on northern ecosystems.