Sustainability

The Process Today

A Food-Water-Resource Balancing Act

A growing and more affluent population will place greater demand on the resources needed for food production – and greater burdens on the global environment.

1. Phosphorus Source: Mining
   Whether "peak phosphorus" occurs in 50 years or in 250 years, this essential nutrient will continue to be pressured by restricted supplies and burgeoning worldwide demand.
2. Fertilizer Production: Industrial
   When phosphate rock is processed to produce fertilizer, up to 60% is lost in the production process. Managing the by-products of processing is costly and a potential environmental threat.
3. Agriculture: Food Production
   Most phosphorus-based fertilizers in use today are highly soluble which means that instead of being taken up by crops, a significant amount of the nutrient leaches or runs off into adjacent waterways.
4. Food Consumption: Population Growth
   A growing, more affluent and increasingly urban population will likely result in a rise in phosphorus-intensive meat and dairy diets, increasing flows .of the nutrient into wastewater facilities.
5. Environmental Impact: Dead Zones
   Once in local waterways, phosphorus eventually finds its way to coastal regions creating dead zones that destroy aquatic life, upset fisheries and threaten the water supply.

The Ostara Solution

Recovering One Precious Resource to Protect Another

Ostara's innovative recovery technology is an economic and environmental solution to global nutrient issues.

1. Phosphorus Source: Wastewater
   Wastewater streams from municipal and industrial treatment facilities, rich in phosphorus and nitrogen, provide essential nutrient streams for Ostara's recovery technology.
2. Fertilizer Production: Pearl® Process
   Rather than view sewage as waste, Ostara's Pearl Process transforms wastewater streams into a renewable resource, creating a planet-friendly fertilizer and saving millions in plant maintenance costs.
3. Agriculture: Crystal Green®
   Crystal Green is the world's first fertilizer made from a local, renewable resource. Suitable in horticultural, turf and agriculture, its slow-release formulation results in considerably less nutrient leaching and runoff.
4. Food Consumption: Population Growth
   Ostara's recovery technology is the ideal solution for growing urban areas where nutrient discharge limits become a challenge to meet in the face of rising volumes of wastewater and associated costs.
5. Environmental Impact: Sustainability
   By reclaiming the nutrients in their municipal, industrial and livestock wastewaters, most countries could actually become phosphorus-independent – and help protect water resources from these otherwise polluting nutrients.