Nasty stuff

ScienceDaily: Urine Collected And Purified Separately

Urine in sewerage is much worse stuff than I would have expected:

Urine accounts for less than 1% of our waste water, but it contains 50-80% of the nutrients in the waste water...

He concluded that if 50% of the urine is separately purified, it would save 25% of the energy needed for the entire purification system. Moreover, the stench of the sewer will be lessened, environmental pressure on the surface water will be reduced, and sewer pipes will be better protected against rot.

The method of keeping it seperate:

A requirement for separating urine is an appropriate toilet (on which men also sit to urinate) or a dry urinal, both of which are commercially available. The urine is collected in tanks on a per building or neighbourhood basis and must then be - preferably as undiluted as possible - periodically transported to a special purification installation. It is also possible to process the urine in a decentralized manner - concepts for this were developed in the research.

So, having the can collected from the backyard (which in many Brisbane suburbs, only stopped in the 1960's) may be on its way back.

UPDATE: Of course, not everyone agrees that urine is nasty. From the (somewhat too open minded "Berkeley Medical Journal") is this enthusiatic rant:

To some people, flushing urine down the toilet is a complete waste of what could be a refreshing breakfast - one’s own fountain of youth, an elixir of health and beauty....

Urine may provide energy, maintain youth, and make skin and hair beautiful. With such wondrous properties, it is amazing that science developed new medicines when a key to good health was already in the bottle, so to speak. Everyone is a walking pharmacopoeia.

The first world conference on auto-urine therapy was held in February of 1996 in Panjim, India. It drew about 600 delegates from nations around the world. The numerous applications of urine were discussed, including use in nose-, ear-, and eye-drops, as well as ingestion and external massage application.

Now there's a conference best missed.