DW: Scientists are turning nutrients from urine, poop, and sewage into fertilizers. This process could help make farming more circular and sustainable. Comment: People are hearing but not comprehending the Strait of Hormuz concerns oil exports but also fertilizer and helium gas. We need to be prepared.

Posted on September 25, 2026 by michelleclarke2015
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Tuana Bildircin 09/20/2026 September 20, 2026

Scientists are turning nutrients from urine, poop, and sewage into fertilizers. This process could help make farming more circular and sustainable.

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Every year, huge amounts of valuable nutrients are flushed down our toilets. Yet farmers depend on many of those same nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, to grow food.

At the same time, Europe continues to rely heavily on mineral fertilizers, even as fertilizer prices have risen sharply in recent years. 

So why do we go to such lengths to produce and mine nutrients for food, only to flush some of them away afterward?

Recovering nutrients from urine, feces and sewage 

Around the world, researchers are developing technologies to turn human waste into fertilizer. 

In Sweden, researchers have developed toilets that separate urine from other waste at the source. The collected urine can then be stabilized and dried into a concentrated fertilizer product that is easier for farmers to transport and use. 

Similar ideas are being tested elsewhere. 

Human feces can also be turned into fertilizer. On an organic farm in Mexico, feces from dry toilets is mixed with materials such as straw and composted for several months. High temperatures during composting help destroy pathogens, leaving behind a soil-like fertilizer that can be used to grow vegetables. 

At Germany’s Emscher Mündung wastewater treatment plant, the SUSKULT project is testing how nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium can be recovered from wastewater and turned into liquid fertilizer.

Around 1,000 liters (some 260 gallons) of wastewater flow through the plant every second. Researchers estimate that recovering just 10% of its nutrient potential could provide enough nutrients to grow around 3% of the tomatoes Germany consumes in a year. 

Together, these projects show how human waste could help recycle valuable resources and support a more circular food system.Skip next section Explore more

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Eco Africa 27.5.22 | EcoAfrica320 France
Eco Africa 27.5.22 | EcoAfrica320 France

Using urine as a crop fertilizer

Research on human waste and how it can be repurposed to benefit society is on the rise all over the world as people strive to adopt a more circular economy and meet sustainability goals.

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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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