As contributors to governmental initiatives to reuse wastewater pollutants in the European Union, the United States and China, we consider that decentralized recovery of these resources could result in more environmental, economic and social benefits than the near-term upgrade of centralized facilities (see W.-W. Li et al. Nature 528, 29–31; 2015).

Decentralized local treatment and reuse facilities avoid the large transportation and energy costs of conveying treated wastewater back to catchment areas for reuse. Concentrating nutrients for recovery also consumes large amounts of energy: urine makes up only 1% of total wastewater volume, and about 80% of nitrogen and 50% of phosphate in wastewater are from urine.

However, nitrogen and phosphorus can be locally recovered from urine using urine-diverting toilets, which greatly reduce nutrient loads to existing plants (J. Elser and E. Bennett Nature 478, 29–31; 2011). Similar strategies can be applied to carbon, leading to greater energy recovery through co-digestion of sludge with food waste, and direct carbon capture and storage for climate-change mitigation.

International strategies for nutrients, energy and water ('NEW' initiatives) aim to transform the water infrastructure for resource recovery. By balancing near-term goals and long-term ambitions, water 'waste' should become a misnomer.