Tackling algae bloom in rural lakes.

Ollan Herr-‘Zero Waste Alliance Ireland’ will report on a pilot project where local communities separated human urine to remove phosphorus.

In light of ongoing threats from algae bloom to local lakes including Lough Melvin, Ollan Herr from Zero Waste Alliance Ireland will show how local groups and communities can play their own small part in reducing algal blooms in nearby local surface waters. He will report on a pilot project from Dundalk that they are doing that. He will advocate how this type of project can help ensure that phosphorus contained in wastewater be prevented from entering local surface waters.

A potential significant further step can be the removal and the treatment of separated urine to reduce emissions of phosphorus entering groundwater from septic tanks and cattle slurry.

With the closing of the Gulf of Hormuz, governments around the world are realising just how dependent we all are on the burning of fossil fuels to produce fertilisers, in particular, phosphorus fertilisers. A long war with Iran will cause global phosphorus fertilisers to become ever more expensive and be a risk to food security. Local communities can play their part in solutions and recycle phosphorus from separated urine in advance of any potentil  future food security crisis.

Ollan Herr is a director of Herr limited https://herr.ie

and a board Director of Zero Waste Alliance Ireland. https://www.zwai.ie