P2GREEN: Turning human sanitary waste into fertilizer

December 1, 2022 was the starting date for our new four-year EU project P2GreeN, which will develop, test and adapt the use of human sanitation waste to produce safe, bio-based fertilizers for agriculture. Our consortium of 32 European partners scored well with the Horizon Europe program and we have been awarded the contract to implement this unprecedented project.

P2GreeN will foster a paradigm shift, from a linearly organised resource and nutrient system within the agri-food supply chain, towards a circular material flow system between urban and rural areas thereby restoring the coupling of the water-agri-food system using a holistic symbiotic resource management approach following the 3R principle “Reduce, Reuse, Recover”. P2GreeN will therefore develop new circular governance solutions for the transition from fork to farm to halt and eliminate N & P pollution by connecting blue urban with green rural infrastructure, focussing on circular nutrient flows of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P).

This will be done through implementation and demonstration of innovative N & P recovery solutions for the utilisation of human sanitation waste from urban settlements and its conversion into safe bio-based fertilisers for agricultural production in three pilot regions (P2GreeN pilot regions) on a north-south trajectory from the Baltic Sea region via the metropolitan area of Hamburg-Hannover to the region of La Axarquía in Southern Spain. This approach will be extended to follower region in Italy, France, Greece and Hungary.

P2GreeN will close nutrient cycles of N & P to foster the transition towards a circular and clean economy (green transition) as well as supporting sustainable food systems from farm to fork offering viable alternatives to reduce the current usage of mineral fertilisers with innovative Green bio-based fertilisers and thus minimise the pressure on the natural resources, specifically water and soil. P2GreeN will further enable policy makers to replicate P2GreeN’s sustainable regional circular economy models in all regional settings across Europe. To facilitate systemic change, co-creation strategies including the participation of all relevant stakeholders as well as harmonised governance frameworks that foster innovations will be key to P2GreeN.