Willingness among food consumers to recycle human urine as crop fertiliser: Evidence from a multinational survey.

Autor: Simha P; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Energy and Technology, Box 7032, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address: Prithvi.Simha@slu.se., Barton MA; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Energy and Technology, Box 7032, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden., Perez-Mercado LF; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Energy and Technology, Box 7032, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden; Center for Water and Environmental Sanitation (Centro de Aguas y Saneamiento Ambiental, CASA), Universidad Mayor de San Simon, Calle Sucre y Parque Latorre, Cochabamba, Bolivia., McConville JR; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Energy and Technology, Box 7032, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden., Lalander C; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Energy and Technology, Box 7032, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden., Magri ME; Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, Florianópolis, Brazil., Dutta S; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China., Kabir H; Department of Agricultural Economics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh., Selvakumar A; College of Engineering and Technology, Samara University, Ethiopia., Zhou X; School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Beijing Key Laboratory of Resource-oriented Treatment of Industrial Pollutants, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China., Martin T; Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, AgroParisTech, UMR ECOSYS, Avenue Lucien Bretignières, 78850 Thiverval-Grignon, France., Kizos T; Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, GR-81100 Mytilene, Greece., Kataki R; Department of Energy, Tezpur University, Tezpur, India., Gerchman Y; Department of Biology and Environment, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Haifa, Oranim, Tivon 36006, Israel; Oranim College, Kiryat Tivon 36006, Israel., Herscu-Kluska R; Oranim College, Kiryat Tivon 36006, Israel., Alrousan D; Department of Water Management and Environment, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, The Hashemite University, P.O. Box 150459, Zarqa 13115, Jordan., Goh EG; Faculty of Ocean Engineering Technology and Informatics, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia., Elenciuc D; University of Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Chișinău, Moldova., Głowacka A; University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Faculty of Agrobioengineering, 15 Akademicka Street, 20-950 Lublin, Poland., Korculanin L; IADE - Universidade Europeia, Av. D. Carlos I, 4, 1200-649 Lisbon, Portugal., Tzeng RV; International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE), Lund University, Lund, Sweden., Ray SS; Institute of Environmental Engineering and Management, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan., Niwagaba C; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT), Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda., Prouty C; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, United States., Mihelcic JR; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, United States., Vinnerås B; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Energy and Technology, Box 7032, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2021 Apr 15; Vol. 765, pp. 144438. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Dec 24.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144438
Abstrakt: Source-separating sanitation systems offer the possibility of recycling nutrients present in wastewater as crop fertilisers. Thereby, they can reduce agriculture's impacts on global sources, sinks, and cycles for nitrogen and phosphorous, as well as their associated environmental costs. However, it has been broadly assumed that people would be reluctant to perform the new sanitation behaviours that are necessary for implementing such systems in practice. Yet, few studies have tried to systematically gather evidence in support of this assumption. To address this gap, we surveyed 3763 people at 20 universities in 16 countries using a standardised questionnaire. We identified and systematically assessed cross-cultural and country-level explanatory factors that were strongly associated with people's willingness to consume food grown using human urine as fertiliser. Overall, 68% of the respondents favoured recycling human urine, 59% stated a willingness to eat urine-fertilised food, and only 11% believed that urine posed health risks that could not be mitigated by treatment. Most people did not expect to pay less for urine-fertilised food, but only 15% were willing to pay a price premium. Consumer perceptions were found to differ greatly by country and the strongest predictive factors for acceptance overall were cognitive factors (perceptions of risks and benefits) and social norms. Increasing awareness and building trust among consumers about the effectiveness of new sanitation systems via cognitive and normative messaging can help increase acceptance. Based on our findings, we believe that in many countries, acceptance by food consumers will not be the major social barrier to closing the loop on human urine. That a potential market exists for urine-fertilised food, however, needs to be communicated to other stakeholders in the sanitation service chain.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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