New Store
Piss Soap upcycles an abundant but undervalued waste product. Contribute to a new circular economy by donating your own pee and receive a bar of soap made from recycled urine and cooking oil.
About the project
Piss Soap challenges our consumerist attitudes, current waste systems, what is considered normal and the value we place on re-used materials. If we believe in the benefits of recycling from plastic bottles to vegetable peelings, why not go one step further and recycle our own waste, which we produce at a rate of 800 to 2000 ml per person, per day? Could we then consider buying such products? Visitors are invited to contribute their urine in exchange for a Piss Soap bar. The soap transforms a universal human bodily function into a biodegradable product. Good for you and good the planet!
The designer
Arthur Guilleminot describes himself as an “eco-deviant artist and positive maverick”. He creates provocative installations that propose new, pleasurable futures. Of this project he says: “The idea was to revive the ancient tradition of using pee to make soap, which was done for many centuries, including in ancient Rome. Could I make a modern product using this ingredient and, in the meantime, also change our feelings of disgust about our golden organic liquid – our pee? By making soap that we use for everyday hygiene, I hope to raise awareness about how unlikely waste products can be used for our benefit.”
Disclaimer
Although urine is almost sterile (it is 95% water in healthy people), it is currently illegal to sell products containing urine in the EU. However, it is legal to exchange them. Piss Soap has been created and cured under strict conditions by designer Arthur Guilleminot and will be exchanged for the purposes of the New Store of the Nieuwe Instituut at Residency for the People during Dutch Design Week. Available while stocks last.
Urine is an aqueous solution of more than 95% water, with a minimum of these remaining constituents, in order of decreasing concentration: Urea 9.3 g/L. Chloride 1.87 g/L. Sodium 1.17 g/L. Potassium 0.750 g/L. Creatinine 0.670 g/L. Urine is sterile until it enters the urethra. Urea is part of the skin’s natural moisturising factor (NMF). NMFs are the skin’s self-moisturising mechanism. They are made up of water-soluble compounds, such as amino acids, that adhere to water. Urea is used in many face creams and moisturisers for its exfoliating and moisturising effects on the skin.
Each 1.5 kg of Piss Soap takes four hours to make and is cured for three months. It is not an edible product, does not smell like pee and will not harm your skin. 1.5kg of Piss Soap contains: 1kg of used cooking oil, 350g of urine, 1kg of orange peel, 100g of caustic soda.
