14 DAY TRIAL // Waternet, i.e. Amsterdam’s water utility, has taken a keen interest in the city's residents' pee. So much that it is now busy collecting this apparently precious resource from public urinals. What's more, people seem more than willing to part with their bladder's “output,” and let Waternet have it.
In case anyone was wondering, Waternet launched its pee-collecting campaign in an attempt to green up Amsterdam.
Thus, the company plans to extract the phosphorus present in urine, and use it to fertilize rooftop gardens, Think Progress reports.
Apart from cleaning the air and serving as home to lots of birds and insects, these gardens absorb some of the rainwater that lands on the city, and therefore cut runoff.
Since runoff in urban areas usually carries many pollutants, limiting it can only prove beneficial both to the environmental and to the public health.
A pee-processing plant is scheduled to open in the region sometime next year. Once up and running, the plant will be able to take urine from 1 million people and turn it into 1,000 tons of fertilizer.