Urine Diversion: One Step Towards Sustainable Sanitation

The report examines urine diversion as a sustainable sanitation alternative that separates urine from faeces to facilitate nutrient recycling in agriculture. It details various implementation contexts, from rural areas in West Africa and China to urban settings in Sweden, and provides technical guidelines for toilets, piping, and storage. The document argues that urine diversion can reduce environmental pollution and provide low-cost fertilizer, though it notes challenges regarding pharmaceutical residues and the need for institutional mainstreaming.

• Urine diversion supports multiple Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by improving dry sanitation facilities, reducing pathogen transport to groundwater, and providing a low-cost, hygienic fertilizer to increase food security.
• The report identifies four distinct infrastructural contexts for urine diversion: low-density on-site sanitation (rural), high-density on-site sanitation (peri-urban), piped systems without adequate treatment, and piped systems with adequate treatment. In the latter, urine diversion is a resource-efficient method for nitrogen removal.
• Large-scale implementation in China and El Salvador demonstrates the technology's scalability. In China, 685,000 urine-diverting toilets were installed across 17 provinces by the end of 2003, while El Salvador constructed approximately 120,000 units since 1990.
• Swedish municipal examples show that urine diversion can be integrated into diverse settings, including the Tanum municipality's policy-driven approach, the Kullön residential area's combination with tertiary treatment, and the Universeum museum's public application.
• Technical requirements for urine-diverting systems emphasize the avoidance of metal components due to the corrosive nature of urine and the necessity of watertight tanks to prevent groundwater intrusion.
• To ensure sanitary safety in large-scale systems, the report recommends specific storage times based on temperature: at 20°C, storage for 6 months is suggested to ensure 'probably none' of the pathogens remain before application to all crops.
• Economic analysis indicates that dry urine-diverting systems are the cheapest on-site sanitation alternative in the Swedish context. In India, a calculation suggests a urine-diverting toilet can pay for its entire investment within ten years through the value of recovered nitrogen and phosphorus.
• The report addresses concerns regarding pharmaceuticals and hormones in urine, arguing that risks to crop quality are likely negligible because soil microbes can degrade these substances, and the risks are far lower than those associated with flushing them into aquatic systems.

APA

Kvarnström, E., Emilsson, K., Stintzing, A. R., Johansson, M., Jönsson, H., Petersens, E. A., Schönning, C., Christensen, J., Hellström, D., Qvarnström, L., Ridderstolpe, P., & Drangert, J.-O. (2006). Urine Diversion: One Step Towards Sustainable Sanitation. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-Report-Kvarnstrom-UrineDiversion-2006-1.pdf

Chicago

Kvarnström, Elisabeth, Karin Emilsson, Anna Richert Stintzing, Mats Johansson, Håkan Jönsson, Ebba af Petersens, Caroline Schönning, et al. Urine Diversion: One Step Towards Sustainable Sanitation. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2006. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-Report-Kvarnstrom-UrineDiversion-2006-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{kvarnstrm2006urine, author = {Kvarnström, Elisabeth and Emilsson, Karin and Stintzing, Anna Richert and Johansson, Mats and Jönsson, Håkan and Petersens, Ebba af and Schönning, Caroline and Christensen, Jonas and Hellström, Daniel and Qvarnström, Lennart and Ridderstolpe, Peter and Drangert, Jan-Olof}, title = {{Urine Diversion: One Step Towards Sustainable Sanitation}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2006}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-Report-Kvarnstrom-UrineDiversion-2006-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }