This Wednesday (27th) was King’s Day in Amsterdam which gave the Dutch another excuse to don the orange – they never need much of an excuse in my experience – hold a street party and quaff gallons of ale – a special weak event ale is produced for the occasion – to celebrate the birthday of King Willem-Alexander.
With over a million joining in the revelries in Amsterdam and with what is ingested inevitably having to be evacuated, the city water board, Waternet, has come up with an innovative idea for recycling the larger than normal quantities of urine passed during the celebrations. They collected the phosphate-rich urine, around 44,000 pints, at three major locations, including Vondelpark, and intend to extract nutrients from it to produce fertiliser. They estimate they will be able to recycle enough to fertilise an area the equivalent of ten thousand football pitches.
Only male urine will do, however. Apparently, female urine is trickier to recycle because of the amount of toilet paper that comes with it.
This is the sort of green initiative I am happy to contribute to!
windowthroughtime 