The start-up Toopi, based in Gironde, collects urine, transforms it into chemical fertilizer and then sells it to farmers and fertilizes their tomato, carrot, zucchini farms… franceinfo met its founder.
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Michael Roes is neither a biologist nor a farmer. With only his baccalaureate in his pocket, the co-founder and director of Toopi Organicsbased in Loupiac-de-La-Réole (Gironde), discovered the virtues of human urine a few years ago: “We take urine, filter it, and take out a liter of product. It’s urine, with weathering bacteria in it. And so it helps to fertilize the plants.” A liquid rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Nutrients that vegetation loves. “The products can be used on absolutely all crops“, specifies the entrepreneur, who embarked on the adventure three years ago. He has just obtained his first marketing authorization. “For us, this totally changes the course of history..”
“A farmer, if he has access to a cheaper method of fertilization than what is currently being done, which is just as effective and which, in addition, is greener… There is no subject.”
Michael Roes, Director of Toopi Organicsat franceinfo
The raw material is collected from festival urinals, motorway service areas, amusement parks or schools. “In France, we produce 30 billion liters of urine every year, with zero comma something of this volume, we already manage to saturate agricultural surfaces with microbial solutions“, describe Michael Roes. His goal now: to attract farmers who consume a lot of chemical fertilizers. “We have logistical capacities, to say that tomorrow, we are actually able to replace 100% of fertilizers.”
To meet demand, Topi plans to develop around twenty urine processing plants in France. This marketing authorization is in addition to that already in place in Italy and Belgium. Usehuman urine in cultures is not new. This was the case a hundred years ago in the Paris Basin, and even in Roman antiquity.