Flushing to the Future: How Amazon Cools Cloud Servers With Your Wastewater

Twenty of Amazon’s data centers run entirely on treated sewage water. That’s right—the same water that goes down your toilet eventually cools the servers powering your Netflix binge. AWS currently uses recycled wastewater at 24 sites globally, from California to Singapore, with Georgia and Mississippi joining the party in 2025.

It’s actually pretty smart. While everyone else fights over drinking water, Amazon’s slurping up the stuff nobody wants. By 2030, they’ll save over 530 million gallons of potable water. That’s water your community can actually use instead of dumping it on hot computers.

Amazon saves 530 million gallons by cooling servers with treated sewage instead of drinking water

The whole operation started in 2020 when Amazon decided to care about water. Now they’re pushing this “water positive” goal—returning more water than they consume by 2030. They’re funding wetland restoration and building water treatment systems. Nice PR move, but at least it’s useful.

Here’s how it works: AWS pumps in treated sewage water, uses it for cooling through evaporation, then sends it back to wastewater facilities. The servers stay cool, the water gets recycled again. Circle of life, data center edition.

But they don’t just blast water everywhere. Amazon’s engineers constantly tweak cooling configurations based on weather, time of day, and location. They prefer using fans and outdoor air when possible. Water’s the backup plan when Mother Nature cranks up the heat.

The expansion makes sense. Data center demand is exploding—thank AI and your 4K cat videos—and these facilities generate serious heat. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. data centers built in recent years sit in water-stressed areas, making recycled water even more crucial. Recycled water doesn’t have many other uses anyway. Nobody’s drinking it, nobody’s watering crops with it. Might as well cool some servers.

Not every facility can handle recycled water cooling. It depends on local infrastructure and whether there’s enough treated wastewater available. AWS is strategic about picking locations, targeting regions with high data center concentration and adequate wastewater supply. In Spain’s water-stressed Zaragoza region, AWS partnered with FIDO Tech to detect and fix water leaks that were wasting 8.7 million gallons annually.

The treated sewage isn’t drinking quality, obviously, but it’s clean enough for cooling purposes. After moistening and cooling the air, it eventually evaporates and leaves the building. Your flush becomes cloud infrastructure. Modern problems, weird solutions.