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CC BY 4.0 · Sustainability & Circularity NOW 2025; 02: a25398742
DOI: 10.1055/a-2539-8742
Original Article

Phosphate Recovery at “A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise”: Organic Micropollutant Uptake and Environmental Risk Assessment

Steven Beijer
1   Van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Amsterdam, PO Box 94157, 1090 GD Amsterdam, the Netherlands
,
Noelia Salgueiro-Gonzalez
2   Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri - IRCCS, Via Mario Negri 2, 20156 Milan, Italy
,
Sara Castiglioni
2   Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri - IRCCS, Via Mario Negri 2, 20156 Milan, Italy
,
Juan C. Gerlein
3   SEMiLLA Sanitation, Innovatieweg 4, 7007 CD Doetinchem, the Netherlands
,
Peter Scheer
3   SEMiLLA Sanitation, Innovatieweg 4, 7007 CD Doetinchem, the Netherlands
,
G Bas de Jong
1   Van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Amsterdam, PO Box 94157, 1090 GD Amsterdam, the Netherlands
,
J Chris Slootweg 
1   Van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Amsterdam, PO Box 94157, 1090 GD Amsterdam, the Netherlands
› Author Affiliations
Funding information We gratefully acknowledge funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 818309 (www.lex4bio.eu) and the European Union’s Justice Programme – Drugs Policy under grant agreement No. 861602 (www.euseme.eu).
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Abstract

Despite increasing interest in struvite as a renewable phosphate source and fertilizer, research into real-world cases of organic micropollutant contamination in struvite is limited, with no studies addressing the inclusion of illicit substances. Urine is an ideal matrix to precipitate struvite from and study its organic contamination, as it contains the majority of organic contaminants as well as nutrients excreted by humans. As such, we devised a worst-case scenario in terms of organic contamination by collecting urine at the Dutch festival “A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise” and precipitating struvite on-site in three batches. This festival setting provided a highly contaminated urine source, offering extreme conditions to evaluate to what extent such contamination translates to struvite and if that struvite would be safe to use as fertilizer. Surveys on consumed pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs by participants guided subsequent analysis of urine and struvite samples, which was performed using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS). Concentrations of organic contaminants in the urine corresponded well with the survey results and were found in a broad range from <1 to over 34,000 ng mL−1. Concentrations found in the struvite precipitates generally showed a correlation proportional to contaminant K oc values with those found in their respective urine source and were predominantly in the range of 1–100 ng g−1, with an outlier at 1081 ng g−1. Based on these numbers, the environmental risk associated with using the precipitated struvite as renewable phosphate fertilizer was classified as insignificant in all cases. After 100 years of hypothetical Lowlands-struvite application as fertilizer, only paracetamol and MDMA would be classified as having low risk. All other analytes remain an insignificant environmental risk, showing struvite to be a safe, renewable phosphate source in terms of organic contamination.

Keywords

Nutrient recycling - Struvite recovery - Target analysis - Organic micropollutants - Environmental risk assessment

Supplementary Material



Publication History

Received: 27 November 2024

Accepted after revision: 12 February 2025

Accepted Manuscript online:
14 February 2025

Article published online:
05 March 2025

© 2025. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Bibliographical Record
Steven Beijer, Noelia Salgueiro-Gonzalez, Sara Castiglioni, Juan C. Gerlein, Peter Scheer, G Bas de Jong, J Chris Slootweg. Phosphate Recovery at “A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise”: Organic Micropollutant Uptake and Environmental Risk Assessment. Sustainability & Circularity NOW 2025; 02: a25398742.
DOI: 10.1055/a-2539-8742