Would You Drink Toilet Water?

ASTRONAUTS DRINK their own pee—after it’s been cleaned. So do people in some parts of California and Australia.

- Kathryn Hulick

“Eww, gross!” you might think, and you wouldn’t be alone. Lots of people feel sick at the thought of drinking recycled wastewater. Many experts, though, argue that recycling pee and other waste is an excellent and safe solution when there isn’t enough fresh water to go around.

On the International Space Station, water is a precious resource. All of the water that astronauts use to drink, brush their teeth, or make coffee comes out of one limited reservoir that has to be resupplied from Earth. To help conserve water, the waste from sinks, toilets, dirty laundry, and even the pee from rats and other lab ani