Slashdot Mirror
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 $40k for the worm system, port-a-potties are still a lot cheaper."
first worm!
This is not a signature.
I already have worms in my poop.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
It doesn't just vanish, you know?
Do the kids get training wheels?
Surprised that wasn't said first. I signed up just for this bad pun. Well, not a lurker any more. :-)
Perhaps this is too expensive to replace the portable restrooms in developing countries, but perhaps this could be used in larger-scale applications to help deal with the solid waste in waste treatment facilities? Instead of using harsher chemicals, we could augment it with more biological processes such as this to increase the efficiency of the treatment. Just a thought anyway.
4$ per flush. That's pretty steep!
Have you ever priced out the cost of your civilized flush?
If you start with the cost of pipes in the ground and end with water treatment plants, it adds up fairly quickly,
though the infrastructure can be amortized across tens or hundreds of thousands of users and tens of years.
Taxes are what we use to buy civilization.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Just a matter of time before the worms feed on enough blood-infested stool from anal fissures and hemorrhoids to turn carnivorous. Queue real-life Ghoulies II re-enactment..
$40K can put in a pretty big septic system, with cistern and rain catchment to provide the liquid for flushing. You can probably get a grey water pond out of it as well if you plan it right. Still, a lot of money for a pound of worms.
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?
Worms that are there for the purpose of sanitation? Good idea.
Worms that are there because of something you ate? See a doctor...
/* No Comment */
There are actually several models of these out already. Some of the folks up here have them instead of an outhouse. http://www.envirolet.com/ The funny part is that you have to turn a handle on the toilet to mix the, uh, contents around after you go. I think you can put other wastes in them (like kitchen scraps) and they will be composted as well...
I wish this joke was original with me... Slashdot: News for turds, Stuff that splatters. Saw it when we were last fascinated with Japanese toilets.
Really? Poop and pee?
Urine and feces. There, I said it. Or excrement if you like. Take your pick, but I don't see why we can't just try to use adult words.
Imagine a summary talking about "nuts cancer".
I'm not trying to be anti-government here, but...
At least around here, the developer ends up paying for all of the new infrastructure and then the sewer authority or township sanitation department charges you per hookup or based on your water usage. In other words, it's a usage fee that maintains the infrastructure, not a tax.
On the other hand, it is compulsory, so maybe I'm being pedantic.
In any event, the sewers should last - at the least - 40 years. So that is amortized over a loooooong time. There is no way I pay anything approaching $4 per flush.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
more toilet humor ... you mean potty talk? /sorry
"It's just simply more economical to dig a hole in the ground"
until the next guy digs one up.. seriously. had the same problem in my yard with the dog. burying it worked for a while, but eventually ran out of new places to dig. buried shit stays around for a while. eventually had to get one of these: http://www.energystead.com/doogies-dooley-pet-waste-composter-2000/
"people have reasonable levels of phobias'
it's not like they have signs advertising worms. looks like any other campsite throne.
http://phys.org/news/2012-10-turd-eating-worms-air-canadian-toilets.html
In Australia we already use composting toilets on country roads for rest stops etc. They don't smell and are cheap to produce and maintain and the ventilation fan runs off a solar cell on the roof. Why should someone pay 40k for old tech?
sudo mount --milk --sugar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_Japan
3.2 Sanitation
In 2002 about 75 million people were connected to sewers and 35 million people had their waste water treated through small-scale waste water treatment devices called jÅkasÅs. They are common in areas not connected to sewers, but also exist in areas connected to sewers. There is even a specific jÅkasÅ law that regulates their construction, installation, inspection and desludging. JÅkasÅs use different technologies and serve different sizes of buildings from single-family homes to high-rise buildings, public or commercial buildings. Treated water can be easily reused for various purposes such as toilet flushing, watering gardens or car washing. Sludge from jÅkasÅs can be used as fertilizer
"I don't want more choice, I just want nicer things!"
-Jennifer Saunders as Edina Monsoon
10,000 uses was before servicing, not before complete replacement.
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
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.)
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Most people don't realize it, but the humble, ubiquitous earthworm is an invasive species in North America. Though you might think of it as useful and beneficial to the soil, in the forests of north America, the earthworm is causing a lot of damage. So I get a bit concerned when they start talking about throwing in "imported worms."
Taxes are what we use to buy civilization.
It doesn't take a lot of taxes to make a sanitation system that works. It does take a lot of taxes to get my cronies a piece of the action.
It seems that a Jokaso is a type of septic system with some additional technology. While I'm sure that water from it can be reused, I'm not finding any indication that this is the typical usage. I'm also not finding any common usage of the sludge being used as a fertilizer (at least not by the homeowner). It looks like there are services that haul the sludge away; if you look at these pictures, you'd clearly have to be very brave to retrieve it yourself!
In other words, it is used the same way that we evil, wasteful Westerners use our water.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Errr, the toilet isn't the "source".
Although that would be an innovation worth posting on Slashdot: parasitic intestinal worms engineered to turn faeces into compost in vivo.
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
On the other hand, it is compulsory, so maybe I'm being pedantic.
Only somewhat pedantic.
The difference is worth being mentioned, but the outcome is exactly the same.
In any event, the sewers should last - at the least - 40 years. So that is amortized over a loooooong time. There is no way I pay anything approaching $4 per flush.
It's not really possible to calculate the long term cost of this system without more information.
If we knew how much the servicing cost and the expected lifespan & replacement cost of components,
we could compare it to the cost of a normal 20~40 year municipal waste bond.
There's also an issue of scale.
Infrastructure is one of those things that, if scaled correctly, can usually be brought down to a reasonable price/person.
Toilets out in the middle of nowhere do not fit that criteria. So in a sense, it's not an equal comparison.
My main goal was to point out that your water & sewer bill at the end of the month doesn't begin to reflect all the money that goes into the average person's 7 flushes per day.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
You realize that the grass fed beef is actually tastier, right?
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
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.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
And some good prime beef, none of that grass fed crap.
You've got to be kidding me, right? Grass fed beef produces a far tastier steak.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.