Why Worms In the Toilet Might Be a Good Idea

derekmead writes "Billions worldwide still don't have access to proper sanitation, and those that do still require a ton of water and electricity to keep waste flowing. A French company is offering one solution: Use turd-eating worms to compost waste right at the source. Ecosphere Technologies has developed an outhouse that, rather than relying on chemicals like a port-a-john, relies on about a pound of red wiggler worms. A new installation in Quebec uses imported worms, placed inside of a mixture of dung and straw underneath to toilet, to devour feces delivered to them by a conveyor belt system. (When someone uses the toilet, pee filters through sand to wash away, while a pedal allows the user to transport their poo to the worm space.) The whole system uses no water or electricity, and a series of passive vents allegedly keeps the toilet smelling great. The company claims it can be used 10,000 times without servicing, which is far better than what a port-a-potty can boast, although with a current price tag of $40k for the worm system, port-a-potties are still a lot cheaper."

Comments

Then who eats all the worm poo?

[Anonymous Coward]

It doesn't just vanish, you know?

Re:Then who eats all the worm poo?

[vivian]

It's bad enough when the waste pump on a boat toilet needs fixing - at least that thing's mostly a small sealed unit with just a couple of hoses clamped on. That's one conveyor belt that you'd want to make sure was damned reliable and never ever needed repairs rr maintenance on - it's going to be one hell of a nasty job if it gets so crusted up it can't move or the bearings go or something like that.

Other sanitation applications?

[raydobbs]

Perhaps this is too expensive to replace the portable restrooms in developing countries, but perhaps this could be used in larger-scale applications to help deal with the solid waste in waste treatment facilities? Instead of using harsher chemicals, we could augment it with more biological processes such as this to increase the efficiency of the treatment. Just a thought anyway.

Foreign critters

[Migraineman]

The article referenced by TFA says the worms are "... Eisenia fetida or red wiggler worms native to Europe imported from France and raised locally by Helene Beaumont ..." I'm currently being invaded by stink bugs imported from China, so I'm not particularly fond of folks proposing solutions that require importing non-native critters. Can't they find an indigenous turd-eating worm?

Re:Possible Delicacy

[HornWumpus]

The Romans also put fermented fish guts (guram IIRC) on just about everything. Like American rednecks and Ketchup or Japanese and Soy sauce. Roman's diets were weird.

Also many third world countries are raising Talapia in their sewer treatment systems. Lack of control on imported Talapia is a good reason to avoid this fish (also it's 'sustainable', screw that, get me some swordfish steaks, Ahi Tuna and an Abalone. And some good prime beef, none of that grass fed crap.)

Seems gratuitiously complicated to me

[Immerman]

This problem has been solved before - In Ye Olden Dayes a common technique was to have your outhouse in the center of a copse of coppiced trees (willow being one of the preferred species due to it's particularly "hungry" roots), which would then convert your waste into firewood while cleaning out the pit for you. Unfortunately then as now mixing liquid and solid wastes produces a fairly toxic mass that's harmful to most life. So what was the solution? Some contrived conveyor system? No - they just put a catchment basin just beneath the front of the seat to catch liquids and redirect them under the trees at the surface. Sure, women had to pay a bit more attention to their aim, but the system was nice and simple with no moving parts to go wrong, and the trees were perfectly capable of dealing with both kinds of waste as long as it wasn't mixed together.