This publication constitutes the Proceedings of a Workshop held in Bordeaux (France) on 8th - 10th October, 1980, under the auspices of the Commissior: of the European Communities, as part of the CEC research programme on 'Effluents from Livestock' and the Concerted Action COST 68 bis 'Treatment and Use of Sewage Sludge'. Major changes have taken place in livestock production techniques in recent years. One of the most important developments has been in the field of animal nutrition. Animals are fed to gain maximum liveweight in close relationship with market requirements for carcass and meat...

The object of sludge characterization must be to get quantitative mea- sures for sludge behaviour in treatment processes and when disposed of. Thus the incentive for characterization could be one of the following: 1. Because sludges exist in large quantities we want to know the amounts and the expenees involved in their treatment and disposal. 2. Because sludges are environmental nuicances/hazards, energy sourc:-es, fertilizers or even food sources; we want to know their potential. 3. Because the processes change the sludge propert~es, we w~nt to know their "treatability". 4. 5ecause sludges...

PH. BOURDEAU Directorate-General Science. Research and Development. Commission of the European Communities. Brussels. Belgium We are living on a unique planet, the only one in the solar system where life exists. The very existence of life has modified the physical and chemical environment of the earth, its atmosphere and oceans, in a way that makes life sustainable. This system with its complex cybernetic mechanisms has been named GAIA by Lovelock. Man has always interfered with it on a more or less limited scale. This interference is now reaching global proportions such as climate...