A great waste: Indian minister Nitin Gadkari wants to collect the nation’s urine for valuable nutrients

The agriculture-driven nation is the world’s second-largest urea consumer and imports six million tonnes of urea annually

But this could dramatically decrease if the country started extracting urea and other nutrients from its own pee, says the minister

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Nitin Gadkari, India's minister for road transport and highways.

Published: 4:01pm, 8 Mar 2019Updated: 8:02pm, 8 Mar 2019

If Nitin Gadkari had his way, all the airports in India would have urine-storage facilities that turn the liquid waste into nutrients.

The 61-year-old minister for road transport and highways, known for his outspoken views, says human pee contains valuable chemicals such as urea and phosphorus, which can be extracted to be used as biofuel.

“We import urea, but if we start storing urine of the entire country, we will not need to import urea; so much potential it has. Nothing will be wasted,” Gadkari told a group of young innovators in Nagpur, his hometown.

But the idea has not gained traction, he lamented. “Other people do not cooperate with me because all my ideas are fantastic.”

India, an agriculture-driven nation and world’s second-largest urea consumer, imports six million tonnes of urea annually and the government wants to drastically reduce this. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in 2017 that India should cut its urea consumption to half by 2022 from the existing level of 30 million tonnes every year.