Eco Factor: Ecofriendly toilet converts human waste into cooking fuel.
According to statistics, about 2.6 billion people in the world lack access to basic sanitation facilities and toilets. This improper disposal of human waste is a major cause of many waterborne diseases and the increase in the increase in the infant mortality rate. To provide a cheap and affordable toilet to people living in underdeveloped areas of the world, industrial designer Virginia Gardiner has come up with a new toilet design called the Gardiner CH4 that doesn’t need plumbing and what’s more… it provides fuel for you to cook your food on.
The exterior of the toilet is made from 90% horse dung collected from the Queen’s Household Cavalry in Hyde Park. The waterless toilet works by packaging waste into a biodegradable material, which seals off bad odors and allows the user to carry the waste to the nearby biodigestor, where the waste is converted into useful methane, which can be used as a cooking fuel. Gardiner estimates that a full-scale biodigester could convert 14 kg of human waste to 110 liters of methane.
The Dark Side:
The product undoubtedly can solve the problems people living in underdeveloped and developing regions face each day. However, carrying your own feces to the digester each day for a fresh supply of methane will be a problem not many would like to confront.
Via: Popsci
