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Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Human Urine as a Fertilizer

Q. Your may think I am crazy but a neighbor has beautiful roses. When asked what he uses for ferilizer, he said he uses urine mixed with an equal amount of water. Is human urine fertilizer?
A. Yes it is but untreated urine is not permitted by law both legally (public urination is a misdemeanor) and environmentally (state dept of environmental protection, NDEP, usually controls the use of waste products in agriculture). Contains urea which converts to ammonia, then nitrite and finally nitrate by soil microorganisms where it can finally be used by plants. Urine also contains numerous minerals in smaller amounts the content depends on what you eat. There are also health issues surrounding the use of animal waste that has not been properly composted, but urine is relatively safe compared to unrefined, solid waste.

That being said, read on about what others have said.....

Human urine as a fertilizer in Scientific American

Review of human urine as a fertilizer

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