REWAISE Final Conference – Turning Water and Nutrient Reuse into Reality

In June 2026, the Horizon 2020 project REWAISE officially comes to an end after six years of innovation, collaboration, and practical demonstrations for smarter and more sustainable water use across Europe.

Sanitation360 and SLU were proud to participate in the final conference in Malmö, where Nicola Parfitt presented our work on developing urine-drying prototypes connected to urine-diverting toilets, and co-hosted a visit of our urine recycling system at Röda Oasen’s property. SVT also joined and created this beautiful video about the project: https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/skane/sa-slutade-de-slosa-pa-dricksvattnet-regnvatten-spolar-toaletter

Within the project, two different prototypes have been tested at VA SYD’s headquarters, focusing on making nutrient recycling more energy-efficient, affordable, and accessible for households and buildings.

The latest prototype has shown promising results — requiring less electricity and energy while also being cheaper to manufacture, making it more suitable for broader implementation in homes and residential settings.

Another important demonstration site has been at Röda Oasen, a collective living community in Sege Park, where residents are allowed to use the recycled urine fertilizer produced from their own system in their local food cultivation. However, the fertilizer cannot yet be used in the wider Sege Park cultivation areas managed by local gardening associations, since current regulations only allow fertilizers certified under existing national frameworks. This highlights an important next step for the sector: developing suitable certification systems for recycled fertilizers that also recognize environmental and circularity benefits.

The REWAISE project has demonstrated that water reuse solutions do not have to be highly complex or expensive to create real impact. Several inspiring examples were presented during the conference, including practical systems that reduce drinking water use in existing buildings — not only in new developments. Watch this lovely YouTube video that explains REWAISE in a nutshell (in lovely Skansk dialect): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71Jqgw61DTE

SVT also joined the day to document the progress and field visits to the living labs REWAISE has birthed. One big highlight is how treated stormwater is already being reused in practice:

• At Röda Oasen, reused water is used for toilet flushing and washing machines.
• At Parkering Malmö, treated water irrigates green walls and urban greenery.

These examples show that circular water systems are no longer future concepts — they are already working today.

We are deeply grateful to the entire REWAISE consortium for six inspiring years of collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and innovation. A special thank you to Helena Tsiparis at Sweden Water Research for outstanding leadership, support, and dedication throughout the project. Your work has helped create important momentum for more circular and resilient water systems in Europe.

A massive thank you to Ludvig, Stina and Solveig at Röda Oasen who have always been keen to implement urine recycling and helped support the installations and disseminate the results by hosting study visits. A BIG thank you!

Thank you also to Malmö stad, VA SYD, Sweden Water Research, and all project partners for an inspiring and thought-provoking final conference.

The transition towards circular water and nutrient systems is already underway — and this is only the beginning.

Keep up to date with the final results and post-project impact REWAISE is creating by following our linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rewaise-eu-project/