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There are several things that most runners do before a marathon: carb-load, warm up and – perhaps most urgently – queue up for the loo to relieve pre-race jitters.

This year’s TCS London Marathon is giving one part of that routine a second life.

For the first time, urine from thousands of women runners will be collected and recycled into fertiliser to evaluate its ability to grow wheat.

It’s the latest sustainability initiative to come from the world’s most popular marathon – and it’s making a splash in more ways than one.

Can nervous wee be turned into nutrient-rich fertiliser?

The campaign is powered by Peequal, a company designing women’s urinals that it claims are 2.7 times faster to use than traditional port-a-loos, and NPK Recovery, which specialises in turning human waste into crop nutrients.

This is the third time Peequal has provided port-a-loos to the famed London race. This year, nine Peequal urinals will be stationed at the marathon’s yellow starting line and are likely to capture around 1,000 litres of urine throughout the day.

Before the race even begins, speed will matter. 

At large global marathons, women often face significantly longer toilet queues than men, which can result in missed start times or added stress before the race. 

The founders of Lapee, another female urinal that claims to reduce usage time from one to two minutes in a normal port-a-loo to just 30 seconds, told the BBC in 2020 that about 90 per cent of toilet queues at big events such as festivals or races are women needing only to urinate.

Peequal’s design helps address that imbalance, making event infrastructure more inclusive as well as more efficient. The sustainability twist comes post-flush.

Instead of being sent into sewage systems, the collected urine will be treated using bacteria to extract nutrients like nitrogen, a chemical that wheat craves. The fertiliser will then be trialled on test fields to evaluate its performance. 

According to NPK Recovery’s estimates, 1,000 litres of urine could eventually grow enough wheat for about 195 loaves of bread. If scaled to cover the urine from all 53,700 finishers at last year’s marathon, that could add up to more than 3,000 loaves.

It’s a planet-friendly innovation with the benefit of performance enhancement. And for runners like Susan Farrell, who’s participating on behalf of British child protection charity NSPCC, it’s a feel-good bonus too. 

“It’s brilliant to think that the nervous wees of thousands of women are helping a good cause,” she said.

Marathons get serious about sustainability

Recycling urine might be the most attention-grabbing idea at this year’s TCS London Marathon, but it’s far from the only green initiative at the starting line.

Across the globe, major races are taking environmental concerns seriously and rethinking the way they operate.

The Tokyo Marathon has swapped out petrol-powered lead vehicles for electric ones. In Berlin, runners use compostable cups and can travel for free on public transport within certain zones during the weekend of the event. In Paris, tonnes of bio-waste from aid stations are now collected and transformed into topsoil.

London has also made steady progress. Refill stations throughout the course encourage runners to ditch single-use plastics. At the 2019 event, edible seaweed pods were even put to the test to see if they could replace plastic water cups.

Today, participants can also opt out of receiving a finisher T-shirt in favour of planting a tree through the Trees Not Tees initiative. Throwaway clothing left at the start is collected and reused by the Salvation Army. And through the You.Smart.Thing. platform, runners can plan routes to the start line that minimise their carbon footprint.

Recycling urine is an ambitious plan, not a punchline

Peequal and NPK Recovery’s pilot project at this year’s TCS London Marathon could be just the beginning.

“Urine doesn’t have to be a waste product,” said Hannah Vandenbergh, founder of NPK Recovery.

“We’re excited to be playing a small part in helping support the sustainability commitments of the iconic TCS London Marathon. Ultimately, we want to help event organisers all over recycle their urine and reduce their carbon footprints.”

The impact might go further than marathons. This clever innovation shows how even the most everyday routines could offer solutions to create a more resourceful future.