Anyone who has ever lived in a developing country (See also: India, Kenya) can attest to the fact that giant piles of poop by the roadside are a common site. In incredibly poor areas, where there is not just a lack of hygiene but proper methods of sanitation and waste management, the spread of filth often contributes to deadly diseases like Cholera and Typhoid.
The problem is so acute in Kenya’s slums, that people routinely fill plastic bags with feces and discard them carelessly. And it was those bags of flying poop that inspired the creation of the PeePoo, a chemically treated toilet bag that sterlizes human waste and converts it to fertilizer.
PopSci reports on the inner mechanism of the PeePoo bag:
The secret of the PeePoo lies with the urea coating on the inside of the bag. Once its filled and buried, enzymes in feces naturally breakdown the urea into ammonia and carbonate. This raises the pH in the bag, killing any pathogens. Once the urea decontaminates the waste, the bag biodegrades, and the remaining ammonia fertilizes the soil.
The bags are not just environmentally friendly, but also incredibly cheap to produce, costing less than 3 cents each.
The makers are hopeful that in areas without access to clean toilets, the PeePoo bags would do the trick.
While we shudder to think how one would work the poop bag, it would help prevent almost one and half million cases of dysentery each year.
