Liquid Death’s latest ad has Jason Kelce urging fans to pee on computers to save humanity. It’s absurd. But the commercial accidentally points at a genuine industry practice: data centers are already cooling servers with recycled wastewater, which contains exactly what Kelce is joking about. The difference is the treatment process.
Michael Obradovitch, VP of Data Center Global Accounts at Ecolab, told TechCrunch that alternative water sources are already being used “to a similar extent” for cooling. Bruno Pigott, executive director of the WateReuse Association and former EPA water administrator, was blunter about the raw approach: urine contains salts, urea, bacteria, and organic matter that leave mineral deposits requiring constant cleaning. “Can you imagine if you just poured urine through hot air?” he asked. Evaporative cooling with untreated pee would be an operational nightmare.
Instead, facilities use membrane bioreactors, reverse osmosis, and UV light to turn sewage into water clean enough for industrial cooling — sometimes even potable. Dr. Greta Zornes, who leads water reuse practice at CDM Smith, says she’s now working on recycled water for data centers “every day right now.” The demand shift is real, not hypothetical.
The catch is infrastructure. Loudoun County, Virginia — home to 250+ data centers — uses about 200 million gallons of recycled water daily, yet that only covers 43% of demand. The remaining 260 million gallons still come from potable supplies. Rural data center sites face an even harder constraint: nearby wastewater treatment plants simply aren’t big enough. That’s the gap between Kelce’s joke and the actual engineering challenge. Recycled water works, but only where the pipes and treatment capacity already exist — and building that out takes years, not a marketing campaign.
