The lack of fertilizers caused by the war against Ukraine is leading to the search for natural alternatives. Who would have thought that Battleboro, a picturesque American town in Vermont, could host a “pissing” contest. Year after year, some 200 people compete there for the Urine Gold Cup. The goal of the contest: collect urine to fertilize crops.
The event is organized by the Rich Earth Institute, a local non-profit organization that pasteurizes donated urine and supplies it to farms to use it instead of synthetic fertilizers. Urine produced by humans contains nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and micronutrients, elements that help plants grow, but these are normally eliminated through the drain.
Researchers and farmers have determined that human urine works as an excellent natural #Fertilizer, also resulting in an ecological product and a good alternative to possible shortages caused by the conflict in #Ukraine 🇺🇦. pic.twitter.com/pVvoUMEAzy
— teleSUR TV (@teleSURtv) May 2, 2022
That is why the institute has equipped most of its volunteers’ houses with toilets that separate the urine so that it can be pumped later and transported to where needed. “This is another way to recycle,” says Abraham Noe-Hays, director of research at the Rich Earth Institute, which is developing an in-building system.
In countries such as Sweden, France, Germany, South Africa and Australia, other organizations work on the reuse of human waste to reduce dependence on commercial fertilizers, which lead to environmental and economic problems.
Synthetic nitrogenous fertilizers pollute groundwater and are a major factor in the acceleration of climate change. According to a study by 2021, the production and use of these fertilizers represent 2.4% of global emissions.
World phosphorus reserves are also shrinking. And farmers are facing shortages and rising prices since Russia, one of the main fertilizer exporters, invaded Ukraine.
“When there is a shock in the supply chain supply, how do we grow food? By recycling urine, we strengthen our food system,” says Prithvi Simha, a researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), in an interview with DW. According to Simha, about a third of all nitrogen and phosphorus used in agriculture globally could be replaced by nutrients obtained from urine. This percentage increases drastically in countries like Uganda or Ethiopia, where urine is preferably used and not synthetic fertilizers, due to high prices.
From “gold liquid” to dry fertilizer
Simha is part of a team of researchers that has developed a way to turn urine into solid fertilizer, similar to the synthetic granules that most farmers currently use.
The company SLU Sanitation 250, based on the Swedish island of Gotland, equips toilets with cassettes that alkalize urine. This allows the nutrients it contains to remain stable while a fan evaporates the water, leaving a dry powder. “There is a lot of complex chemistry behind the result, but the method is actually quite simple to apply. That’s why it would work well all over the world”, explains Simha.
Sanitation 360 has worked with a company that rents portable toilet stalls, which collects some 200,000 liters of urine per year. The manure obtained goes to the local barley crops, and the beer made from it “is exactly the same as any other beer, of course,” said Simha after a taste test.
Separate before recycling
To reuse urine as fertilizer, it must be separated from fecal matter, as well as toilet water. Urine only represents 1% of the wastewater in European treatment plants, but it is one of the main sources of nutrients, such as nitrogen. “Instead of recycling the urine for industry, it is wasted in the drains,” Tove Larsen, a scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), tells DW.
Until now, one of the main problems with urine-diverting toilets has been that they are considered impractical to use and to produce, according to Larsen. But a new model, developed by the Swiss company Laufen and Eawag, could change that situation, he says.
The two-hole toilet uses the “teapot effect”. The front of the bowl allows urine to drain through a separate hole. An innovation that can be made like any other ceramic toilet.
Until now, this innovation has been implemented in only a few buildings in the world. But scientists hope that as these technologies become more widespread, recycling “liquid gold” will become as easy for everyone as sitting down and peeing.
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