Issues with decadmiation
Raises fertilizer costs
With current processes, removing cadmium would significantly increase the cost of phosphate fertilizers. This could be acceptable in developed countries but in many developing countries, the use of phosphate fertilizers is already much too low.
Does not address cadmium in soils
Because decadmiation of phosphate rock during phosphoric acid production only reduces the cadmium content of some fertilizers, cadmium removal alone will not suffice to address concerns over the cadmium content of agricultural soils.
Superphosphates retain cadmium
Fertilizers that do not go through the phosphoric acid route, such as the superphosphates, retain the initial cadmium content. This is also true of phosphate rock applied directly (often in "organic" agriculture), without processing (apart from grinding).
Waste disposal
Decadmiation (as well as soil remediation) raises issues about waste disposal that have not begun to be addressed by the industry or policymakers. Forward planning could make it easier to address this potentially sticky issue, as battery manufacturing is unlikely to take up all the cadmium resulting from the decadmiation of fertilizers.