July 10, 2007 — Recycling urine may be the answer to a looming global shortage of phosphorus, according to an Australian researcher.
Associate Professor Cynthia Mitchell, of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), said the world's deposits of phosphorus are due to run out in about 50 years.
She believes recycling the 132 gallons (500 liters) of urine each person produces a year is the solution.
"Urine is the most concentrated source of phosphorus," she said. "At the moment we dilute that through our sewage system and send it out to the ocean.
"In the industrialized world we must start moving to a resource-recovery approach rather than the current waste-treatment approach."
Phosphorus is a key component in agricultural fertilizers and a lack of phosphorus would affect future soil quality and production.
But Mitchell blames a 'poo taboo' for the failure of governments to move on the issue of recycling urine.
In a public lecture at UTS later this week, Mitchell will call for a "revolution in sanitation" across Australia.
She said technology that allows urine to be separated in the home is already being used in Sweden.
All new homes in the local council of Tanum are required to have urine-separation toilets.
