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Peer-reviewedCC BYEnvironmental Science and Ecotechnology

Scaling up resource recovery from wastewater: A socio-technical perspective

  • Bernhard Truffer1
  • Christian Binz2
  • Eberhard Morgenroth3
  1. 1Eawag – Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland; Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, the Netherlands; Corresponding author. Eawag – Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland.
  2. 2Eawag – Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland; CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research at Lund University, Lund, Sweden
  3. 3Eawag – Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland; ETH- Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich, Switzerland
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Abstract

Resource recovery has gained substantial traction in urban water management in recent years, promising exciting opportunities for utilities to develop novel services, new income streams, and/or expand the environmental benefits of their operations. However, success stories that substantiate the high hopes remain scant. We will argue that a transition of the sanitation sector from providing a public good of waste disposal to running a resource mining venture will require a systemic innovation process in which technical, organizational, and regulatory routines of involved actors will be deeply reshuffled. We review the state of knowledge on the opportunities and barriers for scaling up innovative resource recovery solutions from wastewater and illustrate them with three short case studies of existing resource recovery systems. While the complexity of inducing resource recovery should not be underestimated, transformative innovation trajectories can be successful if technological, social, and organizational challenges are strategically and holistically addressed.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{truffer2026scaling,
  title = {{Scaling up resource recovery from wastewater: A socio-technical perspective}},
  author = {Bernhard Truffer and Christian Binz and Eberhard Morgenroth},
  journal = {Environmental Science and Ecotechnology},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.1016/j.ese.2026.100734},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ese.2026.100734},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Scaling up resource recovery from wastewater: A socio-technical perspective
AU  - Bernhard Truffer
AU  - Christian Binz
AU  - Eberhard Morgenroth
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/01
JO  - Environmental Science and Ecotechnology
DO  - 10.1016/j.ese.2026.100734
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ese.2026.100734
AB  - Resource recovery has gained substantial traction in urban water management in recent years, promising exciting opportunities for utilities to develop novel services, new income streams, and/or expand the environmental benefits of their operations. However, success stories that substantiate the high hopes remain scant. We will argue that a transition of the sanitation sector from providing a public good of waste disposal to running a resource mining venture will require a systemic innovation process in which technical, organizational, and regulatory routines of involved actors will be deeply reshuffled. We review the state of knowledge on the opportunities and barriers for scaling up innovative resource recovery solutions from wastewater and illustrate them with three short case studies of existing resource recovery systems. While the complexity of inducing resource recovery should not be underestimated, transformative innovation trajectories can be successful if technological, social, and organizational challenges are strategically and holistically addressed.
SN  - 2666-4984
ER  -