A marketing campaign by Liquid Death featuring former NFL player Jason Kelce jokingly suggests people should pee on computers to cool data centers. While the commercial is tongue-in-cheek, experts say the underlying idea is not far from reality: recycled wastewater is already used to cool data centers.
Recycled water is made by treating wastewater and sewage so it is safe for industrial use. Michael Obradovitch, vice president of Data Center Global Accounts at Ecolab, said alternative water sources are already used to a similar extent to cool data centers. Bruno Pigott, executive director of the WateReuse Association, explained that while you would not use raw urine, it can be cleaned and turned into useful water.
Dr. Greta Zornes, practice leader for water reuse at CDM Smith, said there has been a boom in recycled water for data center cooling. However, she noted that data centers need to be near sizable wastewater treatment facilities, which is often not the case in rural areas.
In Loudoun County, Virginia, data centers used about 200 million gallons of recycled water per day in 2025, accounting for 43% of their daily water usage. The remaining 57% came from potable water supplies, according to Loudoun Water.
Pigott is advocating for legislation that would provide a 30% tax credit to help scale recycled water infrastructure. Obradovitch said data centers could become anchors of water infrastructure by funding municipal projects, citing Meta's planned $270 million investment in wastewater infrastructure near its data centers.