A scheme to grow 4,500 native trees in the Brecon Beacons National Park will use fertiliser made from the urine of festivalgoers. The fertiliser was produced from waste collected from 700 attendees at last year's Boomtown festival in Hampshire, processed by Bristol-based startup NPK Recovery into 540 litres of product.
The three-year project, backed by a Forestry Commission grant, aims to establish trees such as beech on the edge of Bannau Brycheiniog. Lucy Bell-Reeves, co-founder of NPK Recovery, said trials showed the fertiliser was as effective as common alternatives, and this was the first time it would be trialled on trees.
“Using a waste product to grow trees is a circular solution that can revitalise our struggling native species,” she said. “I love the idea that by the end of this three-year project, revellers will have created a fledgling Welsh forest, which could flourish for hundreds of years.”
The company uses bacteria to recover nutrients from urine, creating an odour-free liquid fertiliser. It processed 1,000 litres from women's urinals at the London Marathon in April last year. NPK Recovery operates a mobile laboratory to process urine at events.
NPK Recovery has partnered with the charity Stump Up For Trees, co-founded by author and cyclist Rob Penn. The charity has planted over 500,000 trees in the area towards a target of one million. Penn said: “We are very excited to be involved in this ground breaking project, which has implications for the future of sustainable forestry.”
