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| The “Peepoo” Bag | |||
| (Tuesday, 02 March 2010) Written by greeniac11447 | |||
| One unfortunate yet relatively unknown problem for 2.6 billion people is lack of access to a toilet. Defecation and urination have long been taboo and stigmatized topics, especially since they are associated with low social status. Sure, it’s a problem billions still have, but it’s embarrassing to talk about your problems in public. Even among non-profit and political organizations today, it’s euphemized as “sanitation” or “water contamination” issues. Unsurprisingly, potential charity donors overlook this seemingly mundane and trivial procedure as a low priority. What’s so bad about it? In dense urban settings, fecal matter that doesn’t get properly disposed often ends up in drinking water and food, killing over a million children with simple diarrhea. It raises health costs for poor families, costs valuable time and effort to walk to sanitation areas, and imposes shame upon those who must bear the terrible stench near piles of open defecation. http://go.worldbank.org/FHAX5D71A0 Fortunately for some, makers of the unabashedly named “Peepoo” bag have come up with a nifty and eco-friendly solution. There are already plenty of people that use the original “flying toilet”, or a regular plastic bag that gets tossed out the window Available at 2-3 cents, “Peepoo” bags are biodegradable plastic bags also intended for one use, after which it can be buried. A layer of urea crystals then kills off bacteria and pathogens that cause common diseases, yet allows the rest of the waste to be used as fertilizer. It has tested well in Kenya and India, where users successfully found some dirt to bury the bags. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/science/02bag.html?em What I like about this idea is that it mimics an already common practice and just modifies it a little bit to make it cleaner and more environmentally friendly. It’s not a perfect solution, since urban customers probably wouldn’t directly benefit from using it unless they have enough resources to be able to grow plants. If the bags were free, on the other hand, I could see this being an extremely popular alternative to the traditional plastic bag. |
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