Each year, a European produces on average 500 liters of urine, enough to completely fill three bathtubs.
Although this bodily fluid contains valuable elements, it is mixed with other materials and discharged into the sewers.
The creators of the start-up Ecosec have found the key: collection.
Based in Montpellier, the company has developed dry toilets that separate faeces and urine: the former is sent to the back of the toilet, the latter downwards.
"Everyone understands that if we sort aluminum on one side, glass on the other, paper, plastic, fermentables, it is much easier to recover downstream. exactly the same for the flows inside the house, ”explains Benjamim Clouet, co-founder of Ecosec.
Urine is 95% water, but also precious elements like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, the winning trio that plants need to grow and that make up chemical fertilizers, a process at the both expensive and polluting.
Urine performs the same function.
Bruno Le Breton has agreed to offer his vineyard as a field of experimentation.
Two years ago, he replaced traditional fertilizers with urine on a small part of his vines at Domaine de la Jasse, near Montpellier, in the south of France.
"The first tests showed that on application, there are no flies, no smell. [...] The result on the vineyard is significantly positive since nothing can be seen. The urine does. the same job as fertilizers [...] ", congratulates the winegrower.
The grapes exposed to urine by the drip irrigation system were harvested and analyzed, nothing unusual being detected.
But for Bruno Le Breton, there remains one obstacle: the relationship that people have with their own excrement.
"Associating urine with the product of wine, a very noble product, it remains a shortcut which is complicated to do in the minds of people. It is simply up to us citizens to ask the question 'are we ready to go or not '?. "
Using urine to grow bacteria
At Toopi Organics, near Bordeaux, using pure urine is not the solution.
The amount needed is far too large to be used on a large scale in agriculture.
In a wheat field, one hectare would require 30,000 liters of urine per year, plus the right equipment, a lot of time and gasoline.
Toopi Organics therefore uses urine to cultivate bacteria that are useful for plants.
Certain bacteria can help plants access phosphorus from the soil.
Others fix nitrogen in the atmosphere and release it directly into the soil.
These products are already on the market, but they are expensive.
If we are to believe Mikael Roes, the technique he has developed based on urine can lower the price from 50 euros per liter to 0.30 euros per liter, for the same product.
An innovation which makes it possible to consider reducing society's dependence on fossil fuels which will one day run out.
"Our bet is not to wait until we no longer have a choice. We are trying to put in place products which are more efficient than mineral fertilizers and which are available immediately", concludes the young CEO of Toopi Organics.
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