You could get paid to poop…for science
Everybody poops. It’s a natural part of existence. But now some people are being offered actual money to poop. That’s right, you can now get paid to poop, all in the name of science.
Researchers at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in Ulsan, South Korea have built a public toilet that’s giving financial value to human waste. The Science Walden Pavillion is home to a waterless toilet system, which turns poop into biofuel. #science
The toilet uses an anaerobic system, where a grinder inside the toilet that “dehydrates and breaks the waste down into a dry, odorless powder, which is then transferred to a digestion tank that is home to thousands of different microbes,” according to Gizmag. “As they go to work, the compost biodegrades, generating carbon dioxide and methane, which the scientists harvest. The carbon dioxide is used to culture green algae, a common source of biofuel, while the methane can be stored for use as a heating fuel.”
In other words, the researchers created a way for humans to not waste their waste. The purpose of the project is to reduce the impact humans have on the environment through technological innovations.
“Our ultimate goal is not only for the new toilet system to save water and operational costs for wastewater treatment plants, but for us to establish an ecosystem that supports technology innovation and drives economic diversification where human waste literally has a financial value,” said Professor Jaeweon Cho, the Director of the Science Walden Pavilion project.
They’re in the process of developing an app that will tell people how much their poop is worth (no word on how they actually determine that), with the ability to pay digitally. So ultimately, someone can drop a load on the science toilet, get paid, and then go buy a salad made from ingredients grown from poop. #yum