1 00:00:01,800 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:06,920 --> 00:00:10,080 Speaker 1: Brain Stuff. Lauren Vogelbaum here with a classic episode from 3 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: our archives. Although stadiums were shut down during the beginning 4 00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:18,360 Speaker 1: of the COVID nineteen pandemic, they've been reopening, which once 5 00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:22,360 Speaker 1: again raises the question, could we be doing something useful 6 00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:27,880 Speaker 1: with all the p happening in those places? Hey, brain stuff, 7 00:00:27,960 --> 00:00:30,720 Speaker 1: Lauren vogel Bam here. Have you ever just tossed a 8 00:00:30,800 --> 00:00:33,080 Speaker 1: nice pair of shoes after slogging around in the mud 9 00:00:33,080 --> 00:00:35,520 Speaker 1: all day at a festival? Or the scent a rug 10 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:37,680 Speaker 1: or piece of upholstered furniture to the dump because a 11 00:00:37,880 --> 00:00:40,880 Speaker 1: beloved mammal in your household, be it dog, cat, or baby, 12 00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:44,319 Speaker 1: made an impressively unfixable mess of it using only their 13 00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:48,000 Speaker 1: bodily fluids. We throw valuable things away all the time 14 00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:50,440 Speaker 1: because they're disgusting and we don't know what else to 15 00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:53,519 Speaker 1: do with them. But one research team at the University 16 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:56,000 Speaker 1: of Florida is taking a hard look at how we 17 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:59,840 Speaker 1: deal with something that's definitely valuable but also essentially gross. 18 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:05,280 Speaker 1: Our p as humans were understandably reluctant to spend a 19 00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:08,480 Speaker 1: lot of time fiddling with our own waste products. After 20 00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:11,080 Speaker 1: all our bodies through with it. It smells bad and 21 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:13,920 Speaker 1: it could potentially make a sick. We are done there, 22 00:01:13,959 --> 00:01:17,479 Speaker 1: take it away. But just because we're not particularly keen 23 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:19,800 Speaker 1: on hanging out with our pa and doesn't mean it 24 00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:24,280 Speaker 1: couldn't save the world. Urine is full of nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, 25 00:01:24,319 --> 00:01:26,880 Speaker 1: and potassium, the same stuff we mine out of the 26 00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:29,479 Speaker 1: ground and air to make the fertilizers that we grow 27 00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:33,400 Speaker 1: our food with. We spoke with University of Florida Associate 28 00:01:33,400 --> 00:01:37,000 Speaker 1: Professor Trevor Boyer. He said the paradigm shift will be 29 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:40,240 Speaker 1: in recognizing that wastewater has a lot of valuable products 30 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:42,920 Speaker 1: contained within it. What we'd like to do is recover 31 00:01:42,959 --> 00:01:45,600 Speaker 1: those valuable products and put them to a beneficial use. 32 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:49,520 Speaker 1: In most parts of the world, with municipal plumbing, urine 33 00:01:49,520 --> 00:01:52,440 Speaker 1: gets flushed to the wastewater treatment plant, along with everything 34 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:55,960 Speaker 1: else that goes down the drain or toilet, biodegradable material, 35 00:01:56,040 --> 00:01:59,600 Speaker 1: assorted cleaning chemicals, and nutrients that are great for making 36 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:02,640 Speaker 1: plants grow, but which can cause algae and rivers and 37 00:02:02,720 --> 00:02:06,360 Speaker 1: lakes to explode and choke up waterways. The wastewater treatment 38 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:09,079 Speaker 1: plant removes as much of this negative stuff as possible 39 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:13,080 Speaker 1: so that it doesn't pollute the environment. Boyer said, the 40 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:16,959 Speaker 1: problem is, wastewater is pretty useless as a combing gold stream, 41 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:18,840 Speaker 1: but if you could separate it out, you'd be able 42 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:22,840 Speaker 1: to recover drinking water, fertilizer material, energy, and even metals 43 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:25,840 Speaker 1: like gold and silver. The key to mining our waste 44 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:28,360 Speaker 1: for these treasures would be in separating the waste streams 45 00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:31,480 Speaker 1: at the source. At this point, that is difficult to 46 00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:34,160 Speaker 1: do in our homes, where plumbing and appliances are set 47 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:38,000 Speaker 1: to dump dish SuDS and urine down the same pipe. However, 48 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:40,600 Speaker 1: Boyer's team realized it would be a lot easier at 49 00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:43,760 Speaker 1: a giant football stadium where nobody's doing laundry but a 50 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:46,639 Speaker 1: lot of people are urinating, and right around the corner 51 00:02:46,639 --> 00:02:48,720 Speaker 1: from the lab there just happens to be a football 52 00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:50,840 Speaker 1: field with more than an acre of turf grass in 53 00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:55,240 Speaker 1: need of fertilization, affectionately known as the swamp. The University 54 00:02:55,280 --> 00:02:58,600 Speaker 1: of Florida football stadium seats ninety thousand fans during seven 55 00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:02,280 Speaker 1: home games each year. A thesis written by Boyer's student 56 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:05,600 Speaker 1: Bryce sink Graph calculated how many times each person would 57 00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:08,960 Speaker 1: use the bathroom during one event, and how much nitrogen, phosphorus, 58 00:03:08,960 --> 00:03:12,560 Speaker 1: and potassium could be harvested from that urine. They concluded 59 00:03:12,600 --> 00:03:15,880 Speaker 1: that in one football season, Gator fans would produce more 60 00:03:15,919 --> 00:03:18,760 Speaker 1: than enough nutrients to fertilize the field for that season. 61 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:22,600 Speaker 1: Boyer said, at this point, nobody in the US is 62 00:03:22,639 --> 00:03:25,560 Speaker 1: capturing urine on site and saving it in storage tanks 63 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:28,919 Speaker 1: to use as fertilizer, and he says that the easiest 64 00:03:28,919 --> 00:03:32,200 Speaker 1: way to accomplish that would be to install special waterless 65 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:35,480 Speaker 1: urinals in the men's bathrooms, which are already being used 66 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:39,000 Speaker 1: in this country as water saving devices. After that, the 67 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:41,600 Speaker 1: urine could be piped to storage tanks under the stadium 68 00:03:41,640 --> 00:03:44,760 Speaker 1: and held while chemistry did its magic, changing the chemical 69 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:47,680 Speaker 1: composition of the urine into a form of nitrogen usable 70 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:51,960 Speaker 1: on grass. Although mining our waste products for valuable nutrients 71 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:55,040 Speaker 1: may not be easy to implement overnight, Bowyer says it's 72 00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:57,280 Speaker 1: important to look at the costs and benefits of it 73 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:00,400 Speaker 1: and how we might accomplish it. He said, the big 74 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:03,920 Speaker 1: question is how do we make our society more sustainable. 75 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:07,280 Speaker 1: The answer might hinge on our ability to change the 76 00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:15,800 Speaker 1: way that we think about our own p Today's episode 77 00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:18,839 Speaker 1: is based on the article recycling stadium urine as turk 78 00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:22,320 Speaker 1: fertilizer could be a golden opportunity on how staff works 79 00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:25,560 Speaker 1: dot com, written by Jesslyn Shields. Brain Stuff is production 80 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:27,680 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works 81 00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:30,440 Speaker 1: dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang. 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