Much Has Been Made of Last Weekend’s Pissing Contest. It Helped Exciting Research.

College football tailgates are known for jolly, inebriated fans, good food and long lines to relieve oneself. But at last Saturday’s Michigan-Michigan State game in Ann Arbor, tailgaters had the opportunity to piss for plant science.

In “The Piss Off,” MSU and Michigan fans could donate their urine to be turned into fertilizer to be tested on plants and crops at both universities. The donation drive quickly garnered widespread attention, reaching the pages of the New York Times and late night set of comedian Seth Meyers.

Jennifer Blesh is a faculty researcher at MSU’s Kellogg Biological Station in Hickory Corners, Michigan. She previously held a faculty position at the University of Michigan.

Blesh told East Lansing Info that the project was started by Nancy Love, a University of Michigan professor of civil and environmental engineering. She said considerable research has focused on turning human waste into fertilizer, but surprisingly little has examined how farmers could use it or what happens when it is applied to the land.

Blesh wrote a grant proposal that was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The project recently completed its second year.

“The main question with this research was understanding how this urine-derived fertilizer affects crop performance, crop nutritional quality, and a range of indicators of soil health and soil ecosystem functioning,” she said.

Will Brinkerhoff, a University of Michigan graduate student who worked in Blesh’s lab when she was there, has been involved in the project from the beginning.

He said conventional fertilizers are derived from fossil fuels.

“It takes a lot of pressure and energy and temperature to produce those fertilizers, so having an alternative fertilizer source that doesn’t use that combustion method can already be more sustainable,” he said.

Another reason for the study is the nitrogen Americans flush down their toilets every day.

Brinkerhoff said a significant portion of Americans’ water bills goes toward wastewater treatment, including the removal of nitrogen and other nutrients that need to be cleaned before wastewater returns to waterways. He said treatment facilities are eager to find ways to reduce the nutrient load entering sewer systems.

So what if our pee could be diverted to greener, more sustainable uses?

Blesh’s lab established two experimental systems: one focused on corn, a dominant row crop in Michigan, and another featuring a diversified system of five crops, including winter wheat and canola.

Although the two-year study funded by the USDA grant has concluded, Blesh is working to secure funding to continue the research.

“The basic takeaway so far is that the urine-derived fertilizer behaved very similarly to the commercial fertilizer so there was no significant difference in crop yield or crop nitrogen uptake, basically suggesting it’s a viable alternative to our standard fertilizer,” Blesh said.

She cautioned, however, that additional research is needed before drawing broader conclusions.

Before urine collected from football fans can be applied to crops, it undergoes a three-step treatment process to make it safe, Blesh said.

First, it is pasteurized to remove biological contaminants. Next, it passes through a process similar to activated carbon filtration to remove chemical contaminants, including pharmaceuticals. Finally, it is freeze-concentrated to increase its nutrient content.

“This is an ancient practice,” Blesh said. “Humans have been recycling nutrients since the dawn of time and it’s a shame to have this linear system where those nutrients are lost.”

Blesh said people interested in recycling their own waste should consult the Rich Earth Institute in Vermont, a nonprofit organization that partnered with the project.

“There’s a window of two to three months after applying,” Brinkerhoff said, “where the crops that are grown with it are considered safe to consume. So, obviously, the lowest hanging fruit is using that fertilizer on even things like golf course grass, or on plants that won’t be directly consumed, but there’s also plenty of research in Vermont about how quickly any risk of contamination leaves the system, and generally any food crops, it’ll be at least two months between the date of fertilization and the date of harvest.”

Both Blesh and Brinkerhoff said they were somewhat surprised by the media attention and support the project received from the two universities.

Brinkerhoff said the University of Michigan even installed a permanent toilet on its north campus to collect urine for the research.

“I think part of why this has been getting a lot of media attention is the maybe surprising pairing of nutrient circularity, urine recycling with football,” Blesh said. “Those are cultures that you might not see coming together.”

MSU senior Jagger Wraalstad was among the tailgaters who stepped up to one of the waterless toilets to make a donation.

“I donated my pee to help science,” he said. “I thought it was a really interesting research project, accessible and they did a good job advertising it and making it fun.”

By the end of the day, 237 gallons of urine were collected: 100 from MSU fans and 137 from Michigan fans.

It’s nice that the Wolverines won something that Saturday.