Household Hazardous Waste
Lawn & Garden - Fertilizers

Plants require nutrients in order to grow. The main nutrients needed by plants include nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. Sometimes nutrients can be the limiting factor of a plants growth. Fertilizers are substances added to the soil to increase nutrient availability, in an attempt to maximize plant growth.

Fertilizers are used in the garden to increase the size of fruit and vegetables, and they are also used on lawns to keep them lush and green. There are many substances used as fertilizers. Manure, bone meal, and guano, occur naturally and are used without much processing. Others are refined from natural sources to an almost pure form, an example is atmospheric nitrogen.

There are many types of fertilizers, some are broad-spectrum “plant foods” that contain many nutrients in one product; others are used to provide a single nutrient to the soils. Fertilizers can have negative impacts on human health and the environment if not used properly.

Hazards:
When fertilizers are over-applied they can be washed off of the soil surface, or carried away in the ground water. These nutrients may eventually end up in surface waters such as rivers and lakes.

Once in surface waters, fertilizers provide nutrients to algae and other aquatic plants. Algae are very efficient at using nutrients and can reproduce quickly. They can bloom and cause problems for people and wildlife that depend on the water.

These problems include, toxins emitted by the algae, surface scum, and foul odors. This is a problem in Vermont and Lake Champlain.

Some fertilizers such as ammonium nitrate can be explosive if not stored properly. If ammonium nitrate is mixed with organic compounds such as fats, oils, or fuels it can become extremely unstable. If ignited it will explode, endangering people or animals in the vicinity.

Storage and disposal: