Could Your Bathroom Break Help Save The Planet?
The next big thing in farming might be your bathroom!
Believe it or not, urine is loaded with nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus—the same stuff plants love. And with traditional fertilizers getting more expensive and harder to source, researchers are looking in some unexpected places for alternatives.
Enter startups like VunaNexus, which are finding ways to recycle urine instead of flushing those nutrients away. Using special toilets, the liquid is separated, cleaned, filtered, and transformed into a fertilizer product called “Aurin.”
It’s already being tested in buildings across Europe, including facilities linked to the European Space Agency. So yes, your morning bathroom trip could one day help grow someone’s dinner.
The catch? Turning pee into plant food is still more expensive than making traditional fertilizer. But if costs come down, farmers may eventually have a whole new way to keep crops growing.
Lana Backan
