What looks like a pile of mining waste can be the opposite of living soil. Slate processing leaves behind huge quantities of fine, powdery material with little organic matter and limited ability to support vegetation. Researchers in north-west Spain tested whether a waste product from another industry, grape marc, could help change that. According to the Soil Science Society of America Journal , researchers tested grape-marc compost and vermicompost to improve slate-processing waste. In the field experiment, the highest application rate was about 120 tonnes of grape-marc vermicompost per hectare. The researchers found that adding organic amendments could improve several physical properties of slate waste, making it more suitable for use in land restoration.
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