Pasteurizers pine for pee-treated pastures
A greener way to fertilize with human waste
Dear Shoestring readers,
This week, Sarah Robertson reported on the multi-state coalition bringing urine recycling to Franklin County.
It’s an effort that seeks to address a growing problem: nutrients from human waste, even after being treated, can pollute waterways by feeding algae blooms that upset the delicate balances of those ecosystems. But they’re also the same nutrients that grow food and other crops. By diverting human urine away from wastewater and towards fertilizer production, Vermont’s Rich Earth Institute and the Long Island Sound Futures Fund hope to solve two problems with one urinal.
“What we’re doing at the Rich Earth Institute, and many other places around the world, is working to reconnect that linear nutrient flow back into the food nutrient cycle,” said Julia Cavicchi, the organization’s education director. “Where we can keep our waste out of our water so our water is cleaner and safer to use and live in, and our nutrients can be easier to reclaim and keep in our local food systems.”
Read more about how it works and what to expect from the Rich Earth’s new venture here, or in this week’s edition of the Montague Reporter.
More soon,
The Shoestring