To Serve, To Strive, and Not To Yield: Urine as AWESOME organic fertilizer

We are made up of elements. 19 to be exact.

The "shewee."

Where do those elements come from? They come from the food that we eat. The animals get it from plants. The plants get it from the soil. Where does the soil get it from? Well, currently we add chemical fertilizers to our soil to replenish the elements we need to survive, but the natural process of things demands that we give our elements back to the soil.

OK, that sounds good. Sounds like a proper cycle but how do we give it back? Well this part might sound stinky to you, but do yourself a favor and suspend your disbelief. We give it back by giving our dirt - our urine and feces, and dead bodies after death - to the soil. Currently, we don't have simple technology to deal with feces and we are alive. This leaves our waste water - urine.

So what is urine anyways? Well, we know it is the clearish, yellowish stuff that we excrete several times a day. We have heard that it is sterile, and we know that it contains the water-soluble compounds and chemicals that our body doesn't need.

It also happens to be the elixer of life for plants, a sweet and delicious nectar, that they are just dying to suck up and turn into food for you.

"Urine contains large quantities of nitrogen (mostly as urea), as well as significant quantities of dissolved phosphates and potassium, the main macronutrients required by plants. Diluted at least 8:1 with water it can be applied directly to soil as a fertilizer. Undiluted, it can chemically burn the roots of some plants, but it can be safely used as a source of complementary nitrogen in carbon rich compost.^[14]The fertilization effect of urine has been found to be comparable to that of commercial fertilizers with an equivalent NPK rating. ^{[15]" - (Wikipedia "Urine," emphasis mine)}

^{How freaking cool is that!? The natural cycle of life has got it figured out. Have you ever seen a dirty forest? I doubt it - the pee, poo, and decomposing bodies are immediately reincorporated rather than gathered together into disgusting concentrations or left places where they cannot be used properly by plants and animals.}

You probably still have some concerns - doesn't it smell? What about the germs, that seems dirty...

Well, first the smell:
In a healthy, hydrated person, fresh urine doesn't actually have much of a smell at all. It depends on what you eat of course (asparagus? spicy foods? saffron?), but generally fresh urine doesn't smell all that bad. The urine stink is really the smell of ammonia while the urine breaks down. Ammonia is a gas, so as long as you keep it covered - it can't escape into your nostrils! Of course you will smell it from time to time, but it's a small price to pay.

Second, sanitation:
Urine is sterile. Once it is out in the open it can be contaminated with bacteria (like e. coli) - just like everything else. Pouring it in the soil that feeds your plants however will not make you sick. Most people wash their vegetables anyways, and that is plenty to get rid of any lingering dangers of contaminated urine.

AWESOME! But what are the logistics of all this? Do I need to redo my plumbing? No siree! Simple as can be. This is how I have been practicing urine collection here in Nepal:

1. Pee in the "shewee." Saves you a late night stumble into the bathroom - which can be treacherous.

2. Dump "shewee" into collection bucket in the bathroom or another convenient place. This bucket can smell a bit though, so now I keep it on the small porch connected to my room.

Think of all the flushes that are saved - 15,000 liters of water a year!

3. Dump bucket into holding tank in the garden. Here it "cooks" for a 2-3 months to turn into totally safe, totally great fertilizer.