{"id":48065,"date":"2025-04-25T01:13:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T01:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/48065\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T01:13:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T01:13:14","slug":"london-marathon-runners-urine-to-be-turned-into-fertiliser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/48065\/","title":{"rendered":"London Marathon runners\u2019 urine to be turned into fertiliser"},"content":{"rendered":"

Urine from thousands of women running in the TCS London Marathon will be saved from sewage and turned into crop-growing fertiliser.<\/p>\n

This will be the third year running that PEEQUAL\u2019s women\u2019s urinals \u2013 which are 2.7 times faster to use than other portable toilets \u2013 have reduced queues at the marathon.<\/p>\n

But this year it is working with fellow Bristol-based start-up NPK Recovery to recycle the urine \u2013 helping to reduce the carbon footprint of the world\u2019s most popular marathon.<\/p>\n

\"Marathon<\/p>\n

Marathon runner Susan Farrell is a fan of the PEEQUAL toilets (PEEQUAL\/PA)<\/p>\n

Urine from nine urinals, positioned at the marathon\u2019s yellow start, will be processed into safe and effective fertiliser for wheat, a crop hungry for urine\u2019s nitrogen content.<\/p>\n

The 1,000 litres of urine will be used for field tests to improve the fertiliser and evaluate its performance on wheat.<\/p>\n

If used purely for growing, 1,000 litres of urine could help grow wheat for approximately 195 loaves of bread.<\/p>\n

Both start-ups hope to one day recycle all urine from large-scale events.<\/p>\n

If recycled, the urine from last year\u2019s 53,700 London Marathon finishers could fertilise enough wheat to bake 3,142 loaves of bread, according to NPK Recovery.<\/p>\n

Susan Farrell, who is running the London Marathon for the NSPCC, said: \u201cIt\u2019s brilliant to think that the nervous wees of thousands of women are helping a good cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used PEEQUAL\u2019s novel urinals at Glastonbury \u2013 their design means they don\u2019t sacrifice privacy and it honestly felt like we were cheating by skipping the queues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to watch guys breeze through and think, \u2018Why can\u2019t we have that?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we do, and I really hope we get to see them at more events.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PEEQUAL<\/p>\n

PEEQUAL co-founder Amber Probyn with some of her toilets (PEEQUAL\/PA)<\/p>\n

Amber Probyn, co-founder of PEEQUAL, said: \u201cWe love coming to the TCS London Marathon because we firmly believe that women shouldn\u2019t have to choose between starting their race on time or waiting to go to the loo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really proud that 1,000 litres of wee won\u2019t go to sewage, and will instead be recycled into something amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

NPK Recovery uses bacteria to recover naturally occurring nutrients from the urine, creating a liquid fertiliser.<\/p>\n

Hannah Vandenbergh, founder of the firm, said: \u201cUrine doesn\u2019t have to be a waste product and we\u2019re excited to be playing a small part in helping support the sustainability commitments of the iconic TCS London Marathon.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, we want to help event organisers all over recycle their urine and reduce their carbon footprints.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kate Chapman, head of sustainability at London Marathon Events, said: \u201cPart of our environmental strategy is to try and find an \u2018onward use\u2019 for all waste that is generated at our events, for instance composting, reusing, upcycling and much more besides.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are delighted that the urine from the PEEQUAL urinals can be used for something so positive rather than going to waste.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Urine from thousands of women running in the TCS London Marathon will be saved from sewage and turned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,17450,6957,26194,26193,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-48065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-london-marathon","13":"tag-marathon","14":"tag-portable-toilets","15":"tag-susan-farrell","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114395952197480570","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}