Michigan, Michigan State team up in "Piss Off" competition to collect urine for fertilizer research

If you're headed to the rivalry game between Michigan and Michigan State this weekend, you could be part of another competition.

The two universities are teaming up to see who can collect more pee in the first "Piss Off" competition.

"What we are trying to do is to look at the potential treatment of urine and extraction of the nutrients for application to non-food agricultural products," said Stephen Gasteyer, professor at Michigan State. 

Gasteyer and professors from the University of Michigan are setting up two yurts on the golf course near the tailgating area. Attendees can choose to contribute their urine to either MSU or U of M. 

"Our waste is food for other biological organisms, writ simply. And so while we recognize that we can't do that directly, Dr. Love and colleagues have come up with a treatment technology that can extract the nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium — all come out of our urine," Gasteyer said. 

Gasteyer is talking about professor Nancy Love at the University of Michigan. Love studies civil and environmental engineering. She said she's hoping to collect hundreds of gallons of urine.  

"It'll be about just under 300 gallons--we have an IBC tote that takes about that much. So that'll be our limit," said Love. 

Love said this kind of fertilizer, derived from human urine, could offset 20-25% of the nitrogen demand for growing grasses, flowers, and other plants we don't consume. But she says it could grow food crops— that's part of future studies. What processes are needed to make sure no bacteria, pathogens or medicines end up in the fertilizer?  

"We know from research that that's a hard leap for people to get to. So that's why we've been focusing on flowers and grass," she said.

Both Gasteyer and Love said this weekend will be a great opportunity to gather enough raw material for multiple months of study.