Adirondack nonprofit explores benefits of composting urine

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - You might throw eggshells, vegetable trimmings, and coffee grounds in the compost bin, but a New York nonprofit is making composting human waste a number one priority.

Compost for Good is a project headed by New York’s ADK Action. Normally, they help people and organizations figure out the benefits of food waste composting, but thanks to a 2019 grant from The Cloudsplitter Foundation, which works to improve the future of the Adirondacks, scientists were able to begin testing human urine composting.

The idea is to find a way to pull urine -- which can harm water bodies down the line-- away from wastewater treatment plants. The group says many people don’t recognize the benefits of urine composting. “Many people sort of scratch their head when I talk about upcycling human urine. There are so many benefits and the potential implications worldwide for eliminating or not sending human urine through conventional wastewater treatment plants is huge, both in this country and around the world,” said Compost for Good’s John Culpepper.

In August the group was given another grant from the foundation to study what’s needed to make it commercially viable.

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