This Bachelor’s Thesis was commissioned by Envor Group Oy which is a family business focused on recycling and recovery services in Forssa, in the region of Häme.

The purpose of the thesis was to find out utilization possibilities of using waste of fire extinguisher powders, for example, as a fertilizer, either alone or mixed with water. The powders were known to contain harmful substances to the environment. The aim was also to find out the amount of these substances.

Experimental tests were conducted using Envor Group Oy’s own laboratory, research methods and tools. Publications related to the field were studied including fertilizer and waste legislation. Some of the tests were carried out in the environmental laboratory of Biotechnology and Food Engineering at HAMK University of Applied Sciences.

The main results of the thesis show that although fire extinguisher waste contains plenty of nutrients, it also contains environmentally hazardous substances. The concentration of cadmium exceeded the limit value, which was set for harmful substances in fertilizers by Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

In the future studies could be conducted to find out if it is possible to mix extinguisher powders with some other dry material, such as compost with the environmental permit. This would lower the concentration of cadmium in nonvolatile content.