thumb|Milorganite building
Milorganite is a brand of biosolids fertilizer produced by treating sewage sludge by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.
History
"Milorganite" is a portmanteau of the term Milwaukee Organic Nitrogen. It was the winning entry in a 1925 naming contest for a biosolids-based fertilizer held in National Fertilizer Magazine. Its history began with Milwaukee's goal to clean up its rivers and Lake Michigan. Rather than land filling solids left over from wastewater treatment, the sludge was used in a pioneering effort to make, distribute and sell fertilizer.
As of May 2019, of waste have been diverted away from landfills. The resulting production is among the largest recycling programs in the world.
Milorganite's roots began in 1911, when local socialist politicians were elected on a platform calling for construction of a wastewater treatment plant to protect against water borne pathogens. As raising taxes for public health was relatively controversial in the early 1900s, producing an organic fertilizer as a means of partially offsetting its operating cost was proposed. With the help of researchers in the College of Agriculture at the University of Wisconsin, the use of waste solids in the form of activated sludge as a source of fertilizer had been developed in the early 20th century. Experiments showed that heat-dried activated sludge pellets "compared favorably with standard organic materials such as dried blood, tankage, fish scrap, and cottonseed meal".
The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District's Jones Island Plant had the largest wastewater treatment capacity of any in the world when constructed in 1925. It was the first plant in the United States to succeed in using the activated sludge treatment process to produce fertilizer.
In 1926, Milorganite made its debut as the first pelletized fertilizer in the United States, with sales directed at golf courses, The brand was popularized during the 1930s and 1940s before inorganic urea became available to homeowners after WWII.
Oyvind Juul (O.J.) Noer helped establish the turfgrass industry, and "was instrumental in the success of Milorganite". While promoting Milorganite, his influence got him designated as “Mr. Turf” by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. He was an important lecturer and authored proponent of turfgrass and fertilizer, including a series of articles titled The ABC of Turf Culture later published as one of the earliest comprehensive books on the subject of turf maintenance. Noer achieved this stature from his willingness to share his extensive knowledge of turfgrass. While working for Milorganite, he visited more than 80 percent of U.S. golf courses, to aid greenskeepers diagnose and cure "turf problems based on research-based knowledge". In 1985, he was inducted into the Wisconsin Golf Hall of Fame.
Since its inception, over four million metric tons of Milorganite have been sold.
In addition to the conflicting financial and environmental goals, it has to cope with fluctuations and vagaries of a changing waste stream. For example, there has been a substantial impact upon both the quality and the quantity of raw material available as a result of Milwaukee losing much of its malting and brewing industry through the departure of once-giant local concerns Schlitz Brewing Company and Pabst Brewing Company.
Product
Heat-dried biosolids contain slow release organic nitrogen and largely water-insoluble phosphorus bound with iron and aluminum and high organic matter.
Milorganite can be used without restriction on gardens growing food crops intended for human consumption under United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules. The product is tested daily for the presence of heavy metals and weekly for waterborne pathogens. It complies with the EPA "Exceptional Quality" criteria, which establishes the strictest concentration limits in the fertilizer industry for heavy metals, allowing Milorganite to be used on food crops. Milorganite has been tested for the presence of contaminants such as waste pharmaceuticals and other forms of drug pollution. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) certifies it as biobased because it is derived from 85% renewable materials.
Suggestions that Milorganite deters deer have been substantiated, but the reputed costs