World Toilet Day - 2019

November 19 is World Toilet Day, a day dedicated to focusing on providing toilets for every human on earth.  Many people do not have access to clean toilets, let alone a toilet at all.  This day draws attention to this fact and endeavors to get people to think about and work toward a solution.  Check out the website highlighting this special day.

London Fatbergs

Ever wonder what a fatberg is and what's in it?  Check out this article.  Pretty strange. 

Vaporizing Poo

In many countries, proper sanitation and sewage treatement does not exist.  People are sickened, contaminated or even injured trying to go to the bathroom using whatever means they have. 

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is working with scientists and others to design an efficient, inexpensive toilet system that can be used worldwide.  This article discusses some interesting ideas and ways of managing waste.

Fatbergs Might Be Useful After All

A model of one of London's fatbergs, showing its size compared to humans.

Fatbergs.  Those pesky lumps of fat, oil and grease (FOG's) that are wreaking havoc on London's sewer system and creating problems in other cities as well.  (A past post discussed wipes that were flushed down the toilet and how they added to the problem and the Facebook page, Custodial Soupcon,  had a post dealing with fatbergs when they were first discovered.) These fatbergs have recently been discovered in sewer systems due to the amount of FOG's, wet wipes and soiled diapers that get flushed away every day.  Maintenance workers have been chipping away at removing them, one which is over 850 feet long and weighing more than 143 tons.  Until now, disposal of these fatbergs was ominous.  However, with a little further research and some out-of-the-box thinking, scientists have devised a way that they can be used as bio-fuel which would create much lower carbon emissions than other fuels.  The full story can be found at inverse.com.