Milorganite

WARNING! Sewage sludge is toxic. Food should not be grown in "biosolids." Join the Food Rights Network.

Milorganite is a Milwaukee, WI product sold as fertilizer but made from sewage sludge. Hundreds of communities across the U.S. sell toxic sludge products that are typically renamed biosolids and sold or given away as "fertilizer" or "compost" (and often even labeled or marketed as "natural" or "organic").

According to one website:

"One of the country's oldest and most recognized biosolids recycling programs is conducted by the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Since the 1920's this city has been producing a granular, heat-dried biosolids product called Milorganite. Milorganite is sold in bulk to fertilizer manufactures, as well as to the citrus industry in Florida. Forty pound bags of Milorganite are sold to the retail market for distribution by nurseries and garden centers and 50 pound bags are marketed commercially to the turf and landscape industry for use at schools, parks and golf courses. Besides being sold throughout the United States, Milorganite has been sold in Japan, Puerto Rico, Canada,Venezuela and India. Approximately 50,000 tons of Milorganite are produced per year."

Articles and resources

Related SourceWatch articles

• Biosolids
• Sewage sludge
• Food Rights Network
• Sewage sludge giveaways, producers, and brands
• The EPA's plan to bypass opposition to sewage sludge disposal
• Water Environment Federation
• You say biosolids, I say sewage sludge

External resources

• Marie Kulick, Smart Guide on Sludge Use and Food Production, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, 2008.
• Targeted National Sewage Sludge Survey: EPA-822-R-08-016 and EPA-822-R-08-018, EPA, January 2009.
• Environmental Working Group, Dumping Sewage Sludge On Organic Farms? Why USDA Should Just Say No, April, 1998.
• Environmental Working Group, Routes of Exposure sewage sludge: EWG Research on Chemicals in sewage sludge, April 30, 1998.

External articles

• Don Behm, Milorganite contamination sourced: Toxic chemical may have leaked from old die-casting company, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, July 13, 2008.

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