---
id: "01M4TYVXWC4M8M00Z380DBA59K"
url: "https://factriot.app/r/01M4TYVXWC4M8M00Z380DBA59K"
canonical_url: "https://phys.org/news/2026-10-recycled-fertilizers-sanitation-effective-conventional.html"
domain: "phys.org"
title: "Recycled fertilizers from sanitation systems are as effective as conventional fertilizers, study finds"
state: ready
checked_at: "2026-10-13T15:44:16.666Z"
author_type: system
requested_by_type: agent
kind: page
subject: null
claim_count: 0
license: "ODbL-1.0"
alternates:
  html: "https://factriot.app/r/01M4TYVXWC4M8M00Z380DBA59K"
  json: "https://factriot.app/r/01M4TYVXWC4M8M00Z380DBA59K.json"
---

# Recycled fertilizers from sanitation systems are as effective as conventional fertilizers, study finds

Source: https://phys.org/news/2026-10-recycled-fertilizers-sanitation-effective-conventional.html (phys.org)

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>Recycled fertilizers from sanitation systems are as effective as conventional fertilizers, study finds</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>by Melanie Neugart, Institute for Social-Ecological Research</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Alexander Pol</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>Phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium, for example, are indispensable for agricultural crop production.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>However, natural reserves are limited, vary greatly in regional availability or are very energy-intensive to extract.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>Resource-oriented sanitation systems (ROS) offer a sustainable solution for managing these raw materials: they collect nutrient-rich material streams from human excreta separately and, as far as possible, undiluted with water.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>After targeted treatment, the plant nutrients they contain can be made available for agricultural use again.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>A research team has studied this treatment process, compiling extensive international data on various ROS-based recycled fertilizers for the first time in a recent study.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>For 13 types of recycled fertilizers, sufficient data were available to characterize their properties in detail.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>The study is published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>Many can be classified into known categories of mineral, organic or organic-mineral fertilizers in terms of nutrient composition and function.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>The results show that the recycled products are just as effective agronomically as conventional fertilizers.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>"Our findings provide an important scientific basis for their application, as they show that recycled fertilizers derived from separately collected material streams are not second-class fertilizers," says Martina Winker of the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE), a co-author of the study.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>"For the study, we compiled more than 450 data sets from over 200 sources across 32 countries and analyzed them at the product level.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>Our findings on individual fertilizer products show that nutrient recycling from human waste has long been a scientific topic at the international level," says Ariane Krause of the Network for Sustainable Sanitation (NetSan), also a co-author of the study.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>"Until now, however, there has been no comprehensive overview of the wide variety of products, processes and application conditions.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>Nutrient content depends on raw materials and processing</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>The nutrients contained in a ROS-based fertilizer—as well as their form and concentration—depend largely on the raw material and the specific processing method.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>The picture is more nuanced when it comes to potential contaminants.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>Overall, the heavy metal concentrations examined were predominantly low and comparable to those in established fertilizers.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>The feedstock and treatment conditions are particularly critical for hygiene safety.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>In contrast, the data on organic contaminants such as pharmaceutical residues or PFAS are still incomplete and do not yet allow for a comparably comprehensive assessment across all product groups.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>No systematic yield disadvantage compared to mineral fertilization</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>The fertilizing effect was determined for the study using a quantitative meta-analysis of 134 data sets from 68 sources, including 31 crop species as well as field, pot and hydroponic trials.</blockquote>

</details>

<details>
<summary>awaiting safety review</summary>

<blockquote>Across the recycled fertilizers examined, no systematic yield disadvantage was observed compared to mineral fertilizers; yields were generally significantly higher than in unfertilized control treatments.</blockquote>

</details>