Phosphorus Recovery in Municipal Wastewater and Socioeconomic Impacts in Canada and the United States

Phosphorus is a nonrenewable material essential for ensuring food security whose global reserves are controlled by a limited number of nations. Potential phosphorus insecurity prompted some countries to develop regulations to support a circular phosphorus economy from end-of-life materials. However, the impact of phosphorus recovery costs on the economy of communities served by wastewater resource recovery facilities stays unquantified. We analyze the socioeconomic impact of phosphorus recovery at the wastewater resource recovery facilities of Canada and the continental United States. We found that phosphorus recovery results in a cost gap between urban and rural areas due to the differences in the treatment level and scale of wastewater resource recovery facilities. This cost disparity could lead to the emergence of deprived social groups bearing the economic burden of transitioning toward a circular phosphorus economy. However, the environmental remediation costs avoided by the recovered phosphorus offset the recovery costs, providing an economic driver for phosphorus recovery.