These Urinals Turn Pee Into Fertilizer For Local Food

  • Wanna Join? New users you can now register lightning fast using your Facebook or Twitter accounts.
Nov 24, 2003
6,307
3,639
113
#1


Peeing in public isn’t usually a government-sanctioned activity. But a few weeks ago, Dutch officials lined up some not-so-private urinals in an Amsterdam park and invited local men to come and, well, partake. It was all in the name of the environment: Instead of sending urine straight down drains, the local water district wants to turn it into fertilizer for local farms.

Phosphorus extracted from the temporary park urinals will go to a green roof in the city. And today, the water utility will launch a new recovery plant designed to mine the phosphorus out of all of the wastewater in the region. Amsterdam's pee alone can fertilize 10,000 football fields' worth of plants, according to officials.

The idea all began because the phosphorus from urine was causing problems--it forms crystals, which were clogging local pipes. "We thought, if we have to remove it, why not do it in a proper way," said Peer Roojimans, who serves on the board of the water authority. "Phosphorus is needed for survival for everything in life, but it’s a limited product, and the mines are exhausted. Since everyone takes it with us every day--and supplies it to our sewage treatment plant when we go to the toilet--we wanted to develop a device that could reuse it."

After wastewater goes to the new recovery plant, the phosphorus and nitrogen from the urine will be separated, cleaned, and transformed into struvite, a slow-release fertilizer. New Dutch laws allow it to officially be used on farms starting on January 1.

Lest it seem that poo has been left out of the plan, Roojimans points out that the entire wastewater treatment plant for the Amsterdam area--which serves a million people--runs entirely on electricity that is produced from solid waste.

Though some question whether there's a truly a phosphorus shortage in mines, it seems pretty clear that reusing it from waste is a better way to have a sustainable supply. And now Amsterdam residents can be proud to know they're recycling every time they flush.


These Urinals Turn Pee Into Fertilizer For Local Food | Co.Exist | ideas + impact
 
May 14, 2002
6,278
6,950
0
41
#2
I hadn't heard this on the news before... although I don't watch the news consistently.
I think it's a good initiative and actually way overdue.
We should actually look in to stepping away from a water based toilet where everything ends up in the sewers and gets chemically cleaned to become our drinking water to to a toilet that would allow us to compost our waste so we don't have to contaminate our drinking water with our waste and chemicals any more. And then we would also not have so much need for chemical fertilizers.


The urinals pictured above are pretty common in Holland although normally they are hooked up to the sewers.
They are being placed through out busy places in the cities in the weekend or in and around festivals.
Some places they are actually build in the ground and after a certain time at night they rise up so you can use them, then in the morning they lower back down and become part of the street again.
 
Nov 24, 2003
6,307
3,639
113
#3
Some places they are actually build in the ground and after a certain time at night they rise up so you can use them, then in the morning they lower back down and become part of the street again.
Wow that is pretty cool.

Seattle experimented with public toilets and they were a colossal disaster both practically and financially.

It was like 1 million dollar mini-hotels for hookers, drug use, and bums naps.
 
May 14, 2002
6,278
6,950
0
41
#4
I think I know which ones you mean... we build these things with one eye looking forward to the future, lol

I think this is in England but we have the same system here.




So this could be a busy shopping street with bars etc, at night when the shops close and the bars get more busy these things come out of the ground and you can do your thing with dozens of people walking by.
Nothing so far for the ladies though.
 
May 7, 2013
13,346
16,241
113
33°
www.hoescantstopme.biz
#6
I think I know which ones you mean... we build these things with one eye looking forward to the future, lol

I think this is in England but we have the same system here.




So this could be a busy shopping street with bars etc, at night when the shops close and the bars get more busy these things come out of the ground and you can do your thing with dozens of people walking by.
Nothing so far for the ladies though.
What happens when the motor kaput and it won't lift out of ground anymore?

These would not work with US society. People like space and privacy.
 
May 7, 2013
13,346
16,241
113
33°
www.hoescantstopme.biz
#9
All I've ever heard is that human waste is incredibly toxic and should never be used for fertilizer despite some weirdos insisting yes.
Human feces, yes. They are not pouring the urine on the crops, they are extracting the Phosphorous. Cmon grower, you know about N-P-K and its importance in plant growth and yield.:siccness: It really is ingenious of them to take advantage of it.
 
May 14, 2002
6,278
6,950
0
41
#10
All I've ever heard is that human waste is incredibly toxic and should never be used for fertilizer despite some weirdos insisting yes.

Oh, all you've ever heard... well then... that must be true :dead:


We now break this circle we flush our waste down the sewer, this sewage water gets 'cleaned' with chemicals what then offered back to us as drinking water. While we grow our crops with synthetic fertilizers.

Actually the natural cycle is for our waste to break down (compost) and fertilize the soil, grow crops, we eat it, and comes out as waste to break down again and so on.


But people who would like clean drinking water (with out or with much less use of chemicals) and more natural fertilizers instead of the ones being used now based on oil and other chemicals all while much less energy is being consumed and with a much cleaner process are the weird people....


... riiiiiight
 
Nov 18, 2010
4,790
50,933
113
32
#11
Oh, all you've ever heard... well then... that must be true :dead:


We now break this circle we flush our waste down the sewer, this sewage water gets 'cleaned' with chemicals what then offered back to us as drinking water. While we grow our crops with synthetic fertilizers.

Actually the natural cycle is for our waste to break down (compost) and fertilize the soil, grow crops, we eat it, and comes out as waste to break down again and so on.


But people who would like clean drinking water (with out or with much less use of chemicals) and more natural fertilizers instead of the ones being used now based on oil and other chemicals all while much less energy is being consumed and with a much cleaner process are the weird people....


... riiiiiight


If you think I'm gonna shit in my plants you're retarded.
 
Last edited: