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Press Release—Partnership for Phosphate Reduction 1/21/09 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Information: Peter Sigmann (920) 824-5193 Ralph Valatka (920) 754-5094 New Idea for Phosphorus Reduction From Sweden by Ralph Valatka Like oil, the element phosphorus is a nonrenewable resource that the earth will run out of someday. It may be in 50 years, or 150 years, but this vital mineral will one-day be gone. Pity… because phosphorus is absolutely essential nutrient for life on our planet, as we know it. Along with its partner, nitrogen, we use phosphorus to fertilize the food that feeds the human race. Unlike nitrogen, which is abundant in even our air, phosphorus is mined at only a handful of locations worldwide. We mine it, use it and disperse it widely across our planet. Much of it ends up in our rivers, lakes and oceans, providing a nutrient overload to downstream areas that eventually become "dead zones." These dead zones result from an over abundance of algae that use so much oxygen from the water, there is none left for the rest of the plant life trying to live there. Locally, we see the result of this phosphorus overloading in the "green stuff," the cladophora overgrowth that slimes over our beaches every summer. There are several ways phosphorus gets into our surface water. One is in treated municipal wastewater. Surprisingly, of the raw sewage entering treatment plants, human urine makes up only 1% of the total volume, but it contains 80% of all the nutrients. If urine were to be processed separately, wastewater treatment plants could be reduced in size, water protection improved and the recovered nutrients recycled. Sweden is already promoting phosphorus recycling by mandating that 60% of phosphorus must be recovered at their wastewater treatment plants by 2015. The United Kingdom and Germany are also coming on-board. In Europe they recognize that every municipal wastewater treatment plant is a potential "phosphorus mine." The Swiss have been very successful leading the way in the area of NoMix toilets that collect urine separately from solid waste. The majority of Swiss interviewed said they had no problem using the new toilets, even men who had to sit rather than stand to use the new units. In Sweden, where the idea of NoMix toilets was born, urine is collected, stored in tanks for six months, and then used as a fertilizer without being purified. In Switzerland, one study institute is conducting feasibility studies into this application. As an added benefit, this "separate collection" model also allows for the segregation of pharmaceutical and hormonal chemicals, micro-pollutants we excrete via urine. Scientists believe that some of these compounds have seriously affected wildlife and humans, especially in urban areas. Currently, municipal treatment systems do nothing to remove these chemicals, and they are returned to the surface water supply that is used to provide drinking water in most communities. These micro-pollutants have been blamed for many problems including measurable trace amounts of tranquilizers in people who live in big cities and for the earlier onset of puberty in young girls (estrogens in birth control medications.) If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, perhaps you’d like the advice of an anonymous but enterprising environmental blogger. He has suggested that Americans should start recycling their own phosphorus. "People should stop p***ing away their phosphorus into municipal sewage treatment plants and start using it to fertilize their own lawns and gardens." For those intrepid souls, he recommends diluting it to one part urine to nine parts water prior to use. The Partnership for Phosphate Reduction is sponsored chiefly by Door Property Owners, Inc. It is comprised of Bayshore Property Owners, Door County Environmental Council, Door Property Owners, Friends of Toft Point, Glidden Drive Association, Lake Forest Park Association, League of Women Voters of Door County, Little Sturgeon Area Property Owners Association, Sustain Door, The Ridges Sanctuary, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin and Whitefish Bay Association. For more information on the Partnership or to receive a copy of their brochure, contact Peter Sigmann at (920) 824-5193. (Information for this article was condensed from articles by Paul O’Callaghan, CEO of Clean Tech Development, Canada, and Vincent Landon of swissinfo.ch on the web.) ######
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We are a voluntary coalition
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