One football game at the time towards a circular economy

To connect the dots from toilets to nutrient recycling, one needs to know that human urine contains nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which when properly recycled, can help grow crops and nourish urban green spaces. There is untapped potential for nutrient recycling from municipal waste and CiNURGi has been investing potential solutions.

The installation of a urine recycling system that collects and concentrates urine from both urinals and urine diverting toilets at the football stadium, was initiated in August 2025, after months of planning the logistics. Seven toilets were replaced with urine-diverting toilets to enable source separation, and together with all urinals in the stadium, they were connected to the same innovative nutrient recycling system developed by CiNURGi partner Sanitation360, in collaboration with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).This new system collects urine from supporters and transforms it into an environmentally friendly fertiliser that is then used in agriculture.

This collaboration with Uppsala Municipality is one of the first implementations of a permanent and large scale nutrient recycling system, with the benefit that it can be used as a local fertilizer for football fields, urban green spaces and agriculture. During an average sports season, the urine collected at the stadium can be turned into 1050 kg of fertilizer. That’s enough to fertilise three football fields (1.5 hectares).

The idea to install this technology at the stadium was part of the CiNURGi project plan, relying on Sanitation360’s flagship products consisting of modular urine-collection boxes and their drying technology. Along with the hardware, the system relies on Sanitation360’s special food-grade stabilizer, a powder that is added to the collection box to retain all the nitrogen in the urine while keeping it safe and hygienic to handle.

Urine contains 70-80% of the nutrients in our wastewater and has far fewer pathogens and heavy metals than feces. By collecting the urine before it is mixed with feces or flush water, it is possible to convert it into a nutrient-rich fertilizer. The urine is concentrated on-site at the stadium to remove water, leaving a nutrient-rich fertiliser that can either be used as a liquid fertilizer or further processed into granules.

Sanitation360 is a Swedish SME that has been operating since 2019, with the aim to turn what we wrongly view as a waste product, urine, into a local and renewable source of fertilizer. The mission is to significantly reduce harmful discharges into waters and support more sustainable agricultural practices. Their nutrient recycling solution tackles multiple global challenges at once — from reducing nutrient pollution in waterways, which causes eutrophication, to lowering dependence on fossil fuel-based synthetic fertilisers. These synthetic fertilizers cause more annual pollution than the global aviation and shipping industries combined.

The company is a spin-off from SLU, where all three co-founders earned their PhDs in urine chemistry and circular sanitation, leading to the creation of Sanitation360 to commercialize their findings. On-going research is supported by a new generation of PhD researchers at the university, exploring and developing potential new methods for urine recycling. Together, Sanitation360 and SLU partner in multiple EU and Swedish-funded projects, where Sanitation360 provides the technology and SLU leads research activities such as field trials on crops and studies on consumer acceptance.

In recognition of its cutting-edge work, Sanitation360 has recently been long listed for the 2026 Food Planet Prize, underscoring its growing influence in the global sustainability ecosystem. The company is currently preparing for a commercial launch of its urine-processing systems in 2026 and continues to expand its capabilities and partnerships to make nutrient recycling a practical and impactful part of circular economy solutions.

The installation at Studenternas Stadium in Uppsala marks Sanitation360’s first large-scale demonstration in a real-world setting. Thanks to this, they have been able to generate detailed user guides and collect valuable data, making it easier to replicate in other buildings. So keep your eyes peeled, new installations in other Swedish cities may be coming sooner than you think.

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