All the drafts I wanted to post in the beginning of April sort of piled up and made their way to mid-June, so in another edition of my old-news-update, I just wanted to draw attention to the current fad of turning waste into power (and money).
We can all agree this is a universally-beneficial idea. Nobody likes waste, we want them gone. Now whether them being gone benefits someone else monetarily is another thing, but we all agree that if waste itself could be annihilated by putting them to good use, everyone's happy, yes?
I don't imagine a lot of people complaining, "hey, you're making money off my poo!" and being honestly offended by the idea that he's not being compensated for the loss of his poo. I mean, it would be great (maybe) if we had a market for human waste, but I think it's good enough that we're able to reprocess them.
Either way, I wanted to discuss these two articles, the first which was published on National Geographic early april, and the second, which was published sometimes mid-May on CNN.
The first article talked about the possibility of using bacteria (thriving off agglomeration wastes) as a microbial fuel cell to generate electricity while simultaneously ridding the water of these bacteria. While such a prototype has been experimented with for a while, scientists claim that this prototype is more efficient and cost-minimizing in the process, making its commercialization viable. The drawback is that the current model can only reduce 97% of harmful bacteria from the water, while the requirement for drinkable water is 99.99%. That said, wouldn't it be revolutionary if we could generate electricity off something we have in abundance and would love to get rid of?
For instance, that means we'll have clean rivers. Furthermore, any more waste thrown in the river will be processed into electricity! The very picture of an ideal world.
Imagine getting rid of all that (unregulated, lol) industrial waste. Imagine being able to bathe and wash your clothes in clean water, without having to worry about how many people have relieved themselves upstream?
On second thought, that pooping business is still a problem. In less-developed nations, slums don't have proper toilets. If you can't even build a house, how do you expect running water and waste-management infrastructure? A lot steal electricity off other people's lines (apparently someone ended up with a monstrous bill and found out that an entire community was leeching off him after the electricity company launched an investigation) and a lot tap water by drilling holes into established pipes.
However, how does one construct a toilet with nowhere to go?
Well, they don't. They poo and pee and bathe and wash in the nearest flowing water source. Some even go au natural and dig a hole. And worst, some do not. Port-a-pottys are also uncommon due to the difficulty in managing them. Who wants to clean after a whole shantytown?
That's where the second article comes in. The second article talks about the slums in Nairobi, where there are (apparently) two options to relieve yourself: perch perilously on a pit above a river (which is a common sight all over the world) or the "flying toilet". Now when I saw the headline I had to ponder upon the meaning of flying toilet.
Apparently it meant relieving yourself in a plastic bag and "throwing the offending item on the street."
MAJOR EW FACTOR. I thought the days of emptying chamberpots out the window were over.
Well here's our solution. A company plans to make our chamberpot into a pot of gold. They're planning to "collect human waste in a series of custom-built toilets before transforming it into compost and fertilizer products that can be sold to the local agriculture industry."Hence, everyone gets toilets and they get a product!
That is, assuming that there is a market for products deriving from human waste. It's a lot more common for animal waste to be processed and turned into fertilizers and whatnot, but the thought of treading on human waste is usually a bit more disturbing for most of us. But for the long run, if the product is accepted by the market, then it would provide toilets to solve the sanitation problems while providing economic opportunities for both local entrepreneurs and the managing company.
Lovely thought. The company also plans to use the waste to generate electricity once the project is widely applied.
They said that they'll be looking to do it next year. Or sometime soon like that.
A toast to humanity, ladies and gentlemen. To the power of people and mutual symbiosis.
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