END-OF-WASTEWATER was a collaborative research project running from 2020-2023. It was carried out by Swedish researchers in close collaboration with the Swedish Nutrient Platform (SNP) — a platform open for engagement from all interested actors along the value chain of nutrient recovery and reuse.

The project title may mean different things to different people. For some, it may reflect a shift of perspective towards seeing wastewater as a resource rather than as waste. For others, it may be about shifting attention from water as the means of transport to what is transported – human excreta. Yet others may see it as an invitation to contemplate sanitation alternatives that literally put an end to wastewater as we know it. There are no limits to creativity when it comes to possible interpretations. For us who worked in the project, the project title alludes to the goal of maximizing the recirculation of nutrients and organic matter from human excreta to productive land while minimizing the concurrent recirculation of substances of concern.

Imagine a world in which nutrients are recirculated extensively from human excreta to agriculture in a way that supports healthy water, soils, food, and people.

Without doubt, there are several different ways to recirculate nutrients in human excreta to productive land: some involve conventional waterborne sanitation systems; others involve alternative ways of managing human excreta. Despite the growing body of research, implementation in practice of extensive nutrient recirculation remains challenging. One of the key obstacles to taking full advantage of the potential for nutrient recovery and reuse, we believe, is that existing knowledge from research and practice is scattered across different sources and rapidly growing, making it difficult to navigate and keep track of.

In 2019, both our research team and the SNP recognized the need to compile and integrate the latest knowledge on nutrient and carbon recirculation solutions from research and practice. Anchored in the SNP and together with committed Swedish actors, our research team co-designed an online evidence platform — EGESTABASE — that can hopefully support actors in Sweden and elsewhere who wish to explore and discuss different ways forward towards safe and more circular use of nutrients in human excreta and other organic residuals.