Introduction to the Circular Bio-Nutrient Economy

“Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value.”

– R. Buckminster Fuller

 

Pollution is the by-product of a system that is out of alignment with nature. In nature, waste does not exist – only a constant alchemy that flows between the waste of one and the needs of another. Everything around us co-evolved through billions of years of trial and error. Our kingdoms of life co-evolved to meet one another’s needs.

At Driving the Green, we are studying and enacting the many ways that golf can help our civilization return to such systems. Fundamentally, our endeavor includes rethinking the assumptions we take for granted. With the help of some friends, our latest exploration is the circular bionutrient economy.

The status quos of wastewater treatment and fertilization show two problems in parallel. Golf participates in both on a large scale, but might also hold keys to bringing back the natural solution. In the case of wastewater disposal and fertilizer production, two negatives may multiply in order to create a positive and much more efficient solution for economy, ecology, and community. The challenges and by-products of nutrient run-off can solve the challenges and by-products of fertilizer production, and vice versa.

Here’s a break-down of the key challenges:

 

Fertilizer production and application

Synthetic fertilizer production and application is costly to the environment and less efficient economically. We use fossil fuels to extract nitrogen from the air or phosphorus from the ground, and then dispose of those nutrients into our waterways and atmosphere.

Consider:

• Electricity cost and release of greenhouse gasses (upstream, in production)

• Inefficiencies and costs of transporting from site of production to site of application (and attendant GHG emissions)

• Runoff into waterways and release of greenhouse gasses (downstream, in application) – nitrogen fertilizers account for more than a fifth (20%) of agriculture’s greenhouse gasses, while 80% of wastewater resulting from human activities goes into aquatic ecosystems untreated

 

Wastewater treatment

Let’s give modern sanitation some credit: our current wastewater treatment system safely collects our urine and feces and helps us avoid outbreaks of disease. However, it then mixes them together such that they can only be treated through chemical processes that also require energy, and eventually still pollute lakes and other water bodies with nutrients that might otherwise serve a functional purpose. These nutrients should support life rather than death. The current model allows a lazy process of entropy that is convenient to the user… but only in the short-term, especially when one considers the long-term impacts of:

• Nutrient runoff from waste disposal (causing algal blooms and disrupting the balance of aquatic ecosystems)

• Electricity cost and GHG (wastewater treatment uses 2% of US electricity)

• Loss of valuable bio-nutrients (urine accounts for 1% of wastewater by volume, yet accounts for 80% of the nitrogen and 50% of the phosphorus found in wastewater)

 

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

Let’s integrate another layer into the challenges and opportunities. Current sewer and septic systems cause all of the problems listed above and more… that is, if you’re lucky enough to live in a part of the world with sanitation systems.

• 2.2 billion people lack safely managed drinking water

• 4.2 billion people lack safely managed sanitation

• Water scarcity could displace 700 million people by 2030

If it’s more energy intensive, economically expensive, and polluting, than why do we participate in these status quos of fertilizer production and wastewater treatment in the so-called “developed world”? For the same reasons that we burn fossil fuels as a source of energy: it’s simpler, it’s more convenient, and it’s what we have been doing – we resist change.

However, the change we’re resisting is really a returning to the solutions intended by the flow of nature.

 

How Pee-Cycling Works

In brief summary, pee-cycling is a solution that diverts urine before it joins a combined waste stream (urine, feces, and chemical treatment), safely reclaims the nutrients from our urine, and then applies those nutrients toward a productive use (agriculture, turf grass management, et cetera).

Phosphorus is a non-renewable resource, and though atmospheric nitrogen remains abundant, extracting it from the air is both financially costly and more expensive to the environment (while also using non-renewable resources). Pee-cycling provides a cheaper solution that instead closes a loop by taking waste and returning it to living systems while avoiding the social and environmental costs of synthetic fertilizer production. As Dr. Rebecca Nelson puts it, “pee is for plants.”

For a more complete understanding, please explore the links below and the Rich Earth Institute’s Urine Diversion Guide, but for now, here is an overview of three key aspects: separation, treatment/storage, and application.

 

Separation

Step one is to separate. By creating separate waste streams, we have an easier time extracting the useful nitrogen and phosphorus from urine. As mentioned above, urine comprises 1% of wastewater by volume yet 80% of its nitrogen and 50% of its phosphorus. Both are usable before they mix in with other waste.

Some current tools and emerging technologies include:

• Separett urine-diverting toilet

• Sanitation360 urine-diverting toilet

• The Electric Pee project – a portable urinal that generates electricity

 

Treatment and Storage

While urine is mostly sterile, some treatment is still required. Given that fertilizer demand is seasonal, whereas the production of natural fertilizer from our bodies is constant, storage systems may still be required, especially in certain geographies.

Treatment primarily aims to purify and concentrate valuable nutrients, reduce pathogens, and enhance all-around functional utility (such as avoiding unwanted chemical reactions). The Rich Earth Urine Diversion Guide lists 12 solutions for treatment. Some of these include:

• Pasteurization

• Reverse osmosis

• Composting

• Freeze concentration (more applicable in colder climates)

 

Application

One important aspect of pee-cycling is that it can limit the distance between the production and application of the nutrients needed for plants. This solves the transportation challenges mentioned above (under the current fertilizer system). The positive benefits of improved nutrient cycling must also outweigh the negative impacts of energy/fuel required to transport urine, so collecting at one location only to transport it to a treatment plant and then transport it again to a site of application may not be ideal.

It is estimated that humans produce enough urine to replace ¼ of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers worldwide. If ¾ of fertilizer needs cannot be met by pee-cycling solutions, then it remains important to underscore the need to reduce fertilizer usage to begin with, which is where organic management options can come into play.

With these caveats in mind, based on the GCSAA’s latest numbers for golf course nutrient management, a typical golf course uses the equivalent of the nutrients found from a year’s worth of pee from roughly 800 people. Might a golf resort or even a muni track host enough people to meet that need?

 

How Golf Can Lead and Scale this Solution

 

#1 – Create Pilot Projects

Golf can mitigate risk and bring awareness to pee-cycling and its associated solutions, which will vary by socio-ecological and turf management contexts. Pilot projects are the simplest way to do so – and only once results have been replicated in context should they be scaled. The most logical places to start could include golf tournaments (given their need for porta potties and wastewater management), municipal golf courses (given their budgetary constraints and surrounding context of municipalities in need of wastewater treatment options), and golf resorts or residences (given their possibilities to integrate large wastewater needs on-site with the nutrient needs of the course).

 

#2 – Use it to Educate about Current Challenges and Beautify Current Technologies

Golf can educate its stakeholders on the “bogeys and hazards” of the current system. Think of this like an employee who solves a problem before presenting it to the boss. In the context of golf, the customer is the ultimate boss, and golf could demonstrate itself as a forward leader by presenting innovative solutions that also educate consumers on the upstream and downstream problems being solved. Imagine artwork and educational infographics that put the old ways to shame. Pee-cycling doesn’t have to be the gross and utilitarian approach that it seems to be at first glance. By engaging local artists and considering opportunities to improve upon the aesthetics of existing facilities, golf could apply pee-cycling in a way that is not only better for the world, but more elegant and thus better for the golfing experience – whether we’re talking about a struggling muni or a fancy resort.

 

#3 – Scale a Solution with Global Significance

By applying the two possibilities above, golf can show that pee-cycling is not just a “solution for poor people” in third-world contexts, which might help us scale needed solutions for sanitation, clean water, and agricultural inputs around the world. Through its greenery and prestige, golf can create a halo effect that normalizes what might otherwise appear to be a solution only for the poor. Golf can present pee-cycling to the world as simpler the better solution.