thinking outside the closet

Millions of people still don't have clean drinking water, yet in modern cities we flush literally gallons of it down the toilet every time we go for a pee. This should be a crime.

There are lots of examples of low water toilets, dual-flush toilets, composting toilets, and waterless urinals. There are even incinerating toilets for those who dare. Here and there, these end-user technologies are adopted voluntarily or with incentive subsidies, but they are not being used in sufficient numbers to offset growth in demand for water. We seem to be stuck in the pilot project stage, meaning "Hey, I wonder if this thing works?". Of course it bloody works. Just do it. We don't have to go completely waterless, but there is no reason for any toilet to use more than six litres a flush.

But we should be beyond that by now, and here's why.

SA and Swiss partner to dispose of e-waste

The City of Joburg has set up 25 public collection points for discarded computers, cellphones, microwaves and other electronic equipment. This e-waste will go to recycling companies for dismantling, reducing waste going to landfill sites. About 70% of South Africa's e-waste is thought to be in storage, representing up to 20,000 tons of waste. Switzerland will use its decade-long experience in recycling e-waste to help Joburg's waste management utility, Pikitup.

[Source: The Star (Johannesburg), 17 November 2006]

The Star in Johannesburg reports:

In 2004 more than 180-million PCs were sold worldwide. In the same year, an estimated 100-million obsolete PCs entered the waste streams... In South Africa, it is estimated that betweeen 1.2 and 1.5 million computers enter the market each year.

wastewater to biofuels

One of the most creative proposals I have seen for combining wastewater effluent with labour-intensive farming for job creation comes from Robbie Robinson in South Africa. He says that low-quality agricultural land is already being used with subsurface drip irrigation fed with dolomitic water from gold mines. He figures that clusters of small-lot farms could use the millions of kilolitres of water produced by the mines to grow rows of crops in rotation, so that a central biofuel production plant could be supplied with feedstock throughout the year, and the farmers would have a continuous income.

[Source: The Star (Johannesburg), 17 November 2006]