Will the circle be unbroken? The climate mitigation and sustainable development given by a circular economy of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and water

Abstract

Closing the loop in the flow of C, nutrients and water between agriculture, the human diet and sanitation services offers benefits for humanity across multiple platforms of public health, food...

Mitigating Contaminant-Driven Risks for the Safe Expansion of the Agricultural─Sanitation Circular Economy in an Urbanizing World

“…Further research shows that treatment type and sewer connectivity strongly influenced the emission of rotavirus from wastewater in a comparison between the UK and Nigeria, where 100% and 25% of the urban population were connected by a sewer, respectively . Challenges associated with the large-scale treatment of excreta will only be exemplified in the future with most of the global population expansion predicted to take place in the Geopolitical South; with many regions projected to lack the financial resources and the provisioning of water resources to enable any substantial development of wastewater infrastructure …”

“…52 Challenges associated with the largescale treatment of excreta will only be exemplified in the future with most of the global population expansion predicted to take place in the Geopolitical South; 53 with many regions projected to lack the financial resources and the provisioning of water resources to enable any substantial development of wastewater infrastructure. 10 Similarly to the management of human excreta, manure management strategies are diverse; ranging from little to no treatment to more advanced technologies with varying impacts on contaminant concentrations. 54 Composting has been shown to reduce the risks of pathogenic microorganisms, and while stockpiling and can create favorable conditions for the degradation of some organic chemicals such as veterinary antibiotics, 55,56 contaminants such as heavy metals are persistent.…”

“…Estimates for P recovery range from 9 to 20% of that which is applied to agricultural production as a fertilizer, , with greater potential for recovery in countries with high protein diets since this results in higher per capita rates of N and P excretion . N recovery also offers promise in terms of mitigating climate change by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from industrial ammonia production and the associated manufacture of mineral fertilizer and its application to land. − Recent estimates suggest that carbon recovered from sanitation could meet up to 12% of the annual C sequestration potential of the worlds’ agricultural land . Agriculture currently accounts 70% of global freshwater use, with the greatest demand originating from arid regions such as Northern Africa and Western Asia.…”

“… 9 N recovery also offers promise in terms of mitigating climate change by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from industrial ammonia production and the associated manufacture of mineral fertilizer and its application to land. 10 − 12 Recent estimates suggest that carbon recovered from sanitation could meet up to 12% of the annual C sequestration potential of the worlds’ agricultural land. 10 Agriculture currently accounts 70% of global freshwater use, 13 with the greatest demand originating from arid regions such as Northern Africa and Western Asia.…”

A Critical Review of Data Science Applications in Resource Recovery and Carbon Capture from Organic Waste

“…Fortunately, these organic waste streams, rich in nutrients (e.g., nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) and carbon, can be valorized utilizing RRCC technologies while also mitigating risks to the environment and human health. ,− On a global scale, a fully functional circular economy between agriculture and wastewater treatment utilizing RRCC could have reduced 140 Tg of CO 2 emissions in addition to sequestering 104 Tg of CO 2 in 2022 . RRCC from organic waste streams also addresses two of the 14 grand challenges for engineering in the 21st century: managing the nitrogen cycle and developing carbon sequestration methods .…”