The urine revolution: how recycling pee could help to save the world

The urine revolution: how recycling pee could help to save the world

Separating urine from the rest of sewage could mitigate some difficult environmental problems, but there are big obstacles to radically re-engineering one of the most basic aspects of life.

Feb 9, 2022

On Gotland, the largest island in Sweden, fresh water is scarce. At the same time, residents are battling dangerous amounts of pollution from agriculture and sewer systems that causes harmful algal blooms in the surrounding Baltic Sea. These can kill fish and make people ill.

To help solve this set of environmental challenges, the island is pinning its hopes on a single, unlikely substance that connects them: human urine.

Starting in 2021, a team of researchers began collaborating with a local company that rents out portable toilets. The goal is to collect more than 70,000 litres of urine over 3 years from waterless urinals and specialized toilets at several locations during the booming summer tourist season.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00338-6

Isn't this more or less what a septic system with drip irrigation does? It's true that the grass really does grow greener (and faster) in the drainfield...