WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Could Recycled Urine Make Sustainable Fertilizer?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff. Lauren Vogelbaum here with a classic episode from

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<v Speaker 1>our archives. Although stadiums were shut down during the beginning

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<v Speaker 1>of the COVID nineteen pandemic, they've been reopening, which once

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<v Speaker 1>again raises the question, could we be doing something useful

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<v Speaker 1>with all the p happening in those places? Hey, brain stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren vogel Bam here. Have you ever just tossed a

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<v Speaker 1>nice pair of shoes after slogging around in the mud

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<v Speaker 1>all day at a festival? Or the scent a rug

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<v Speaker 1>or piece of upholstered furniture to the dump because a

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<v Speaker 1>beloved mammal in your household, be it dog, cat, or baby,

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<v Speaker 1>made an impressively unfixable mess of it using only their

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<v Speaker 1>bodily fluids. We throw valuable things away all the time

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<v Speaker 1>because they're disgusting and we don't know what else to

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<v Speaker 1>do with them. But one research team at the University

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<v Speaker 1>of Florida is taking a hard look at how we

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<v Speaker 1>deal with something that's definitely valuable but also essentially gross.

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<v Speaker 1>Our p as humans were understandably reluctant to spend a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of time fiddling with our own waste products. After

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<v Speaker 1>all our bodies through with it. It smells bad and

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<v Speaker 1>it could potentially make a sick. We are done there,

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<v Speaker 1>take it away. But just because we're not particularly keen

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<v Speaker 1>on hanging out with our pa and doesn't mean it

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<v Speaker 1>couldn't save the world. Urine is full of nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus,

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<v Speaker 1>and potassium, the same stuff we mine out of the

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<v Speaker 1>ground and air to make the fertilizers that we grow

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<v Speaker 1>our food with. We spoke with University of Florida Associate

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<v Speaker 1>Professor Trevor Boyer. He said the paradigm shift will be

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<v Speaker 1>in recognizing that wastewater has a lot of valuable products

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<v Speaker 1>contained within it. What we'd like to do is recover

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<v Speaker 1>those valuable products and put them to a beneficial use.

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<v Speaker 1>In most parts of the world, with municipal plumbing, urine

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<v Speaker 1>gets flushed to the wastewater treatment plant, along with everything

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<v Speaker 1>else that goes down the drain or toilet, biodegradable material,

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<v Speaker 1>assorted cleaning chemicals, and nutrients that are great for making

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<v Speaker 1>plants grow, but which can cause algae and rivers and

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<v Speaker 1>lakes to explode and choke up waterways. The wastewater treatment

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<v Speaker 1>plant removes as much of this negative stuff as possible

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<v Speaker 1>so that it doesn't pollute the environment. Boyer said, the

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<v Speaker 1>problem is, wastewater is pretty useless as a combing gold stream,

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<v Speaker 1>but if you could separate it out, you'd be able

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<v Speaker 1>to recover drinking water, fertilizer material, energy, and even metals

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<v Speaker 1>like gold and silver. The key to mining our waste

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<v Speaker 1>for these treasures would be in separating the waste streams

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<v Speaker 1>at the source. At this point, that is difficult to

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<v Speaker 1>do in our homes, where plumbing and appliances are set

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<v Speaker 1>to dump dish SuDS and urine down the same pipe. However,

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<v Speaker 1>Boyer's team realized it would be a lot easier at

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<v Speaker 1>a giant football stadium where nobody's doing laundry but a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of people are urinating, and right around the corner

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<v Speaker 1>from the lab there just happens to be a football

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<v Speaker 1>field with more than an acre of turf grass in

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<v Speaker 1>need of fertilization, affectionately known as the swamp. The University

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<v Speaker 1>of Florida football stadium seats ninety thousand fans during seven

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<v Speaker 1>home games each year. A thesis written by Boyer's student

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<v Speaker 1>Bryce sink Graph calculated how many times each person would

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<v Speaker 1>use the bathroom during one event, and how much nitrogen, phosphorus,

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<v Speaker 1>and potassium could be harvested from that urine. They concluded

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<v Speaker 1>that in one football season, Gator fans would produce more

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<v Speaker 1>than enough nutrients to fertilize the field for that season.

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<v Speaker 1>Boyer said, at this point, nobody in the US is

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<v Speaker 1>capturing urine on site and saving it in storage tanks

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<v Speaker 1>to use as fertilizer, and he says that the easiest

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<v Speaker 1>way to accomplish that would be to install special waterless

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<v Speaker 1>urinals in the men's bathrooms, which are already being used

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<v Speaker 1>in this country as water saving devices. After that, the

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<v Speaker 1>urine could be piped to storage tanks under the stadium

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<v Speaker 1>and held while chemistry did its magic, changing the chemical

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<v Speaker 1>composition of the urine into a form of nitrogen usable

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<v Speaker 1>on grass. Although mining our waste products for valuable nutrients

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<v Speaker 1>may not be easy to implement overnight, Bowyer says it's

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<v Speaker 1>important to look at the costs and benefits of it

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<v Speaker 1>and how we might accomplish it. He said, the big

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<v Speaker 1>question is how do we make our society more sustainable.

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<v Speaker 1>The answer might hinge on our ability to change the

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<v Speaker 1>way that we think about our own p Today's episode

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<v Speaker 1>is based on the article recycling stadium urine as turk

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<v Speaker 1>fertilizer could be a golden opportunity on how staff works

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<v Speaker 1>dot com, written by Jesslyn Shields. Brain Stuff is production

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