Scientists are urging people to recycle their urine in the garden, claiming it can be a useful resource for putting food on the table.
Farmers spend $128,000 a year on synthetic fertilizers for their crops, but urine could offer a cost-effective alternative because it contains nitrogen and phosphorus, which are essential for maintaining and promoting crop growth.
Cow dung is currently used to help grow crops, but scientists have argued that urine is not that different and could offer an environmentally friendly alternative to flushing it down the toilet.
Nitrogen found in urine pollutes the ocean by causing algae to grow at excessive rates, suffocating corals and poisoning marine life, and scientists shared a mixture to use urine in your home garden.
Adults eliminate an average of 132 gallons of urine each year, which could be converted into odorless and profitable fertilizer for crops.
Farmers currently use synthetic fertilizers (pictured), which can cost around $128,000 a year.
The average person eliminates about 132 gallons of urine each year, which could be converted into 13 pounds of fertilizer.
‘Our urine is worth its weight in gold,’ said researcher Divina Gracia P. RodrÃguez ScienceNorway.
“Think of all the fertilizer we’re missing out on now,” he continued. “It’s about time we started collecting and using our own waste.”
Researchers are developing toilets that can separate urine from remaining water and have already begun testing them in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.
Once separated, the urine can be dried and made into inexpensive, odorless granules that can be spread across farmland to fertilize crops.
Although the concept may not seem appealing to most, Anne Spurkland, a professor and medical researcher at the University of Oslo, told ScienceNorway that it is “completely safe.”
Spurkland said there is a way to apply this method at home by mixing one part urine with nine parts water and spraying the liquid on the vegetables with a narrow-spout watering can.
“Soil bacteria transform nitrogen into new building blocks that plants use,” Spurkland said.
While the idea may seem far-fetched, researchers at the University of Michigan confirmed in a 2020 study that urine fertilizer can be used without fear that it could spread antibiotic-resistant infections.
Scientists were concerned that people who provided urine to farmers might have urinary tract infections (UTIs) that could contain DNA from the bacteria.
The study found that if the urine was not freshly distributed and left to age in an incubator for 10 hours, there was a 99 percent drop in antibiotic resistance genes.
“Humans have been collecting urine and using it as fertilizer for a long, long time, but in the West that really ended with the invention of the sewage system,” said Dr. Krista Wigginton, co-author of the study. The Guardian.
“Now we’re just trying to figure out, with this infrastructure system that we have, how to go back and think differently about what goes into this sewer system and capture some of those valuable products before they’re produced.” [they] Does it mix and dilute with everything else?