Wastewater
Is it really a waste? Or can we treat it as a resource - Zhen He
image by: AZ Water Association
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We now treat half the world’s wastewater – and we can make inroads into the other half
Humans flush away vast amounts of water every day. When managed correctly, this wastewater is collected and undergoes treatment to remove pollutants that can otherwise threaten human and environmental health. In my latest research I estimated that more than 50% of the world’s domestic and manufacturing wastewater now follows this pathway, rather than the previous estimates of just 20%.
While this sounds like good news, it comes with a caveat. Treatment rates vary drastically across the world, and are especially low in many developing countries. An estimated 4.2 billion people lack access to safe sanitation and there are around 829,000 deaths from diarrhoea attributed to unsafe water…
Resources
How to make sewage drinkable
You should want to drink from your toilet. Flushes flood sewers with precious liquid that ends up washed out to sea or sprinkled on crops. But we could be enjoying recycled urine as a beverage. Some U.S. cities, like the perpetually parched San Diego, are beginning to use advanced purification treatment plants to reclaim the stuff, combating drought by harnessing millions of gallons of would-be waste daily. It tastes so good, you’ll forget that it used to be your neighbor’s pee.
From the Wastewater Drain, Solid Pandemic Data
The coronavirus could turn sewage surveillance into a mainstream public health practice.
From Toilet to Tap: What Cities Need to Overcome to Make That Happen
Recycled sewage will be a part of more cities’ water supplies in the future. But how do you get past the yuck factor?
How Your Hot Showers And Toilet Flushes Can Help the Climate
A secret cache of clean energy is lurking in sewers, and there are growing efforts to put it to work in the battle against climate change. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates Americans wash enough energy down the drain every year to power about 30 million homes. The sources are often everyday items inside homes. Think hot showers, washing machines and sinks. Evolving technology is making it easier to harness that mostly warm water.
It’s time to begin a national wastewater testing program for Covid-19
The U.S. needs to get started with wastewater surveillance now. The science clearly supports this strategy. Doing so will provide a cost-effective method of understanding the pandemic and an early warning system for increased and decreased transmission as the pandemic waxes and wanes.
Research puts wastewater to work, as a source of both water and electricity
Washington University researchers have developed a filter that treats wastewater and also generates electricity—an advance that could reshape energy use at treatment plants.
Your Poop Might Be Key For Predicting the End of the Pandemic
Looking for the new coronavirus in wastewater could give us a heads up about where the outbreak is spreading—and when it has started to dissipate.
Let’s All Drink Recycled Wastewater (No, Seriously)
High-tech systems filter pathogens and drugs, help conserve water
Bacteria made to turn sewage into clean water – and electricity
A self-powered waste water treatment plant using microbes has just passed its biggest test, bringing household-level water recycling a step closer.
Flushing the Toilet Has Never Been Riskier
Some of today’s sewers were built before bathrooms as we know them existed. It’s time to upgrade.
We have to recycle water on a massive scale – this is how we can
The world is running out of drinkable water, and putting a price on the stuff won't work. But we are well on the way to building a circular water economy.
We're flushing all these antidepressants into our water. How big is the problem?
As pharmaceuticals taint rivers and lakes, scientists search for solutions.
World’s first city to power its water needs with sewage energy
A city in Denmark is about to become the first in the world to provide most of its citizens with fresh water using only the energy created from household wastewater and sewage.
You Don't Know Shit
Every day, America must find a place to park 5 billion gallons of human waste, and we're increasingly unable to find the space. We wake up in the morning, brush our teeth, and flush the toilet, thinking that the waste water disappears into the center of the Earth. If only that were the case.
Your pee could be the golden ticket to a greener world
By redesigning wastewater systems, we can build a circular pee-conomy.
We now treat half the world’s wastewater – and we can make inroads into the other half
Humans flush away vast amounts of water every day. When managed correctly, this wastewater is collected and undergoes treatment to remove pollutants that can otherwise threaten human and environmental health. In my latest research I estimated that more than 50% of the world’s domestic and manufacturing wastewater now follows this pathway, rather than the previous estimates of just 20%.
WaterReuse
Transforming Water, Sustaining Our Future... The WateReuse Association is the nation’s only trade association solely dedicated to advancing laws, policy, funding, and public acceptance of recycled water.
National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association
OWRA is the largest organization in the U.S. dedicated to representing the onsite and decentralized wastewater industry. We work to protect water resources and promote the economic, environmental, and public health benefits of septic systems.
National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS)
A new public health tool to understand COVID-19 spread in a community
National Association of Wastewater Technicians
The MISSION of the National Association of Wastewater Technicians is to unify the voice of the sanitary liquid waste management industry,
Brave Blue World
We are here to challenge many of the commonly held assumptions about our water systems and change how people think about water. Our goal is to bust the global sense of impending doom by painting an alternative, optimistic water future and mapping out the ways to get there. We believe that even one person with enough knowledge can make a difference and inspire a movement. We are here to provide that knowledge.
WaterWorld
WaterWorld Magazine is dedicated to delivering up-to-date information on technology, products and trends in the municipal water and wastewater industry.
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