1. Broad discussions with builders, citizens, experts within water and waste management.

2. Turn challenges (like a central treatment plant) into solutions (adding a testbed and a show room for the public to the treatment plant).

3. Implementation. Food waste, toilet water, and grey water from bathing and washing is separated into three pipes at the point of use in each household. Over 2,000 new homes and offices in our urban renewal neighbourhood Oceanhamnen are the first in the world to use the new system at full scale – following its development in Helsingborg – along with sister projects in six cities around Northern Europe.

In Oceanhamnen kitchens, food waste disposed in sinks are collected in one pipe, and black water from toilets is collected in a second pipe. The third pipe collects grey water from washing and bathing water, and it is reused for heating and cooling purposes in each home before following the other two pipes to a recovery centre nearby.

The recovery centre collects nutrients and materials for producing biogas and organic fertiliser that fulfil the end-of-waste criteria. It also captures any remaining heat from the grey water stream for heating more homes, before the minimal remaining wastewater from the three streams goes on to our wastewater treatment plant.