Poo Power!

Every individual creates 300g of human waste each day. That is a lot of shit! Currently in Nairobi there are 4 million inhabitants, which means roughly 720,000kg of poop just laying around the land with nowhere to do and no purpose. But what if their shit had a purpose? What if all of our shit had purpose? Well, that’s what Nairobi is trying to do. They want to turn it into biogas so that they can tackle their energy crisis.

If you’re not already familiar, methane is a greenhouse gas, and methane is what is released from our poop. If it’s released into the atmosphere it is many times worse for our environment than C02 is. Currently, 57 bio centers have been built in Nairobi, which have so far managed to collect at least 60,000kg of poop.

Some of the bio centers being built also have other amenities such as space for recreations, social activities, and even small businesses. One bio center in Kibera is run by women who also manage an orphan school and within the building they offer hot showers, which you guessed it, are run by biogas. The orphanage currently earns 45,000 Kenyan shillings a month, which they use towards the children.

Umande Trust is now working with engineers from Denmark and the Netherland on converting bioslurry into fertilizer and also seeing how they can recycle the water. Much like our poo being reused, it’s nice to see other parts of the world adopting the idea. Instead of dumping it back into our oceans, do you think this is a reliable way to reuse our waste?

What other ways can we use our waste to help our environment?

– K