Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Reusing The Un-Reusable

Who would ever think that human waste would be good for much of anything. For a long, long time, human excrement was something that could only contaminate water supplies and negatively affect our health if it wasn't well-secured and treated. Now there is a way for it to be put to very good use.

From RawStory:

A cheap system to recycle human waste into bio-gas and fertiliser may allow 2.6 billion people in the world access to toilets and reduce global warming, an Indian environmental expert said Tuesday.

Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation, said his group plans to push the system at the seventh annual World Toilet Summit, to be held in New Delhi at the end of October.

(snip)

He said India's contribution would be a toilet system that organically breaks down feces into trapped bio-gas that can be burned to provide cooking fuel and electricity, and convert urine into fertilizer.


Isn't nice to see the creativity of the human mind make such great use of the crap that comes out of us?