The mussel shell has positive properties for the conservation of acidic soils, a utility discovered by researchers at the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM).

The study, carried out by the Waste Recovery Group of the Department of Soil Science at the ETSI of Agronomists of the UPM, reveals that the mussel shell increases the fertility and quality of the soil. As the results indicate, this species increases the pH of the soil, while increasing fertility and decreasing the amount of aluminium, which allows much of this industrial waste to be reused.

The research, which was carried out in Galicia, was completed with an experiment that consisted of mixing the use of slurry, used to return nutrients to the soil, together with the use of mussel shell, which has led to an improvement in its biochemical activity.