Urine Separation:
The Next Wave of Ecological Wastewater Treatment

Urine may well be liquid gold: it contains up to 90% of the nitrogen and 50% of the phosphorus in domestic wastewater. Producing the same amount of petroleum-based, nitrogen-rich fertilizer takes an enormous amount of energy and non-renewable resources. So why isn’t urine used more widely as a fertilizer? Largely because of squeamishness and misconceptions about urine as a contaminant but also because most toilets put urine in with the rest of the waste stream, making it impossible to use effectively. Urine-separating toilets, long available in Europe and slowly making their way to North America, make saving and using urine possible.