After going from farm to fork, most of the nutrients that were extracted from the soil or the air to make fertilizers are eventually lost to the ocean or the atmosphere, leading to significant pollution.

This presentation will focus on the losses that stem from sewer-based sanitation and flush-based toilets. Through a detailed mass-balance of French sanitation, a quantification of the nutrients’ flows shows that 50% or more is lost to the environment (despite France having one of the highest amount of nutrients returned to the soil in Western countries).

These numbers, coupled to an analysis of historical regulations and their consequences, suggest that sewer-based technical innovations are unlikely to address these issues. An alternative paradigm, source-separation will therefore be presented together with an assessment of its potential to reduce water consumption and produce locally-sourced and sustainable fertilizers to increase food security and sovereignty.

My talk at RAMIRAN 2023 on the logistics of nutrient recovery from urban organic matter (well, mostly urine in this case).

In a few words, for most cities below a few million inhabitants, it is most probably fine to work directly with raw urine (without any transformation or concentration process).

My entry for the Fediverse Solstice School 2023, kindly moderated by Emma Ward.

Présentation donnée lors du Séminaire du Métaprogramme BETTER en 2023.

Programme complet : https://www6.inrae.fr/better/Page-d-accueil/Actualites/Seminaire-BETTER-2023

Talk about my research on nutrient circularity in Reims: I look at fluxes of organic matter (biowaste, urine, and feces) from urban areas to agricultural parcels to see how we could collect and transform them to make fertilizer and amendments.

Part of the Transdisciplinary Research for a Healthy Planet 2023 Symposium: https://symposium-tr4hp.sciencesconf.org