Urilizer

[Charles Kozierok]

Cool story I heard on the radio yesterday about a new group doing research into recycling human urine for use as fertilizer:

Noe-Hays says all human waste has value. "But we're focusing on urine first," he explains, "Because it has the vast majority of nutrients in it --- almost all of the nitrogen and most of the phosphorous -- and it's also is free of intestinal pathogens.

Noe-Hays says those nutrients make urine a powerful fertilizer. The practice of flushing it ‘away' with water, means the nutrients end up in lakes and streams where they fertilize algae blooms and unwanted plant life.

According to Noe-Hays, this approach to human waste not only feeds an endless demand for synthetic fertilizers. It disrupts a natural cycle, in which nutrients from plants, consumed by humans, return to the soil to nourish new plants.

Which makes sense. Even so, I have a feeling it's going to be pretty difficult to make this practical -- liquids aren't easy to work with.

The experiments included sanitizing the urine by different methods and applying it in test strips.

Brattleboro farmer Jay Bailey owns the hayfields where the tests took place.

"If you walked out there it was plain as day where the urine had been applied," Bailey says. "Because the grass was bright green."

Bailey says the strips treated with urine yielded three times more hay than the strips where no urine was applied.

This will come as no surprise to anyone who has a septic system. But even so, I was impressed -- triple the yield? Wow.

 

[randomrogue]

Anyone who has had a septic system could spot the septic lines since the grass grows better on them. However I have no idea how you would get inner city urine into the fields. At some point you have to look at a cost analysis. I can't see this being economical feasible. Even if you somehow could keep the urine separate, and could dehydrate it for the nutrients, you would still have a relatively large transportation cost.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Grandson pees in the yard all the time. Imitates the dogs.

In another couple Yeats, it will not be so entertaining to my wife. Daughter already yells at him

 

[Charles Kozierok]

In another couple Yeats...

Gotta love automatic spell checkers, eh?

 

[Murloc]

it's unpractical to collect pee, and what about all the estrogens in the piss?

 

[Lithium381]

Anyone who has had a septic system could spot the septic lines since the grass grows better on them. However I have no idea how you would get inner city urine into the fields. At some point you have to look at a cost analysis. I can't see this being economical feasible. Even if you somehow could keep the urine separate, and could dehydrate it for the nutrients, you would still have a relatively large transportation cost.

well, we could start at large stadiums and just collect the urinals. . . have to be hundreds of gallons at an event . . .

 

[DrPizza]

Anyone who has had a septic system could spot the septic lines since the grass grows better on them. However I have no idea how you would get inner city urine into the fields. At some point you have to look at a cost analysis. I can't see this being economical feasible. Even if you somehow could keep the urine separate, and could dehydrate it for the nutrients, you would still have a relatively large transportation cost.

Yes. And interestingly, my inlaws/ alpacas (relatively picky eaters) will NOT eat the greener grass near the leech field.

 

[CycloWizard]

This won't happen in the US any time soon. Currently, no byproducts from wastewater treatment can be used on fields used to grow crops for human consumption (though they are used on fields used to grow crops for animal consumption). There is no scientific rationale - just that people find it gross.

 

[DrPizza]

This won't happen in the US any time soon. Currently, no byproducts from wastewater treatment can be used on fields used to grow crops for human consumption (though they are used on fields used to grow crops for animal consumption). There is no scientific rationale - just that people find it gross.

I think that there is a rationale, though no current evidence to confirm it. We know that even if you sterilize it, putting the remains of cows back into the food chain feeding more cows ends up spreading mad cow disease. I think part of the concern is a "what if," coupled with "and it's completely unnecessary, because there are a lot of alternatives."