Circular Sanitation from North to South

Introducing our new logo for the VINNOVA funded project “Uricycle — North2South”.

Urine recycling from North to South aims to adapt our urine recycling system to a South African context in collaboration with Sanitation Ambassadors and SWSP. Our urine is extremely nutritious and by using urine diverting toilets and connecting them to a concentrator/drier, the urine can be recycled and the nutrients can become a granular fertiliser for agricultural use.

This project further enables us to investigate the interconnection between the social and environmental aspects of going to the toilet, by developing and installing a prototype that is not only safe, hygienic and affordable but contributes to creating a fertiliser for local farmers. The prototype will first be tested in schools in Cape Town, as one of Sanitation Ambassadors big goals is to eradicate unsafe pit latrines in schools.

In Sweden, we could replace about 30% of the mineral fertilisers used in agriculture if we collected all urine in each country, whereas we could replace about 50% in South Africa. So other more sustainable fertiliser alternatives are also needed if we wish to fully replace mineral fertilisers. However, countries with larger populations and lower rates of fertiliser use have a much larger potential to replace synthetic fertilisers with urine (see map below). It is therefore crucial that our urine recycling technology can be adapted to different climatic and socioeconomic settings. This is why this project is so important, and will hopefully lead to a South African prototype that can fit similar contexts.

Prithvi Simha/Datawrapper and FAOSTAT, Author provided.

There is also a big need to increase access to improved sanitation around the world (see map below) which will require large investments. These investments need to focus on incorporating nutrient recycling into the sanitation system, as it is the future of sanitation and creates a local fertilizer source that improves food security.