At our Biosolids Processing Facility, we actually take about 150,000 tons of number 2 and turn it in to a fertilizer amendment! When you flush the toilet, the waste goes to a water treatment plant. That plant takes the liquids and gives us the solids - or sludge. This sludge is put into what we like to call a “poo laundromat,” and dried at high heat. The temperature is high enough to kill harmful pathogens and bacteria. This dried cake then goes into a machine that pelletizes and sizes it so we can sell it as fertilizer amendment! This fertilizer can be used for agricultural farming to grow food. We then eat the food and…. make more fertilizer! An interesting part of this process is that to power these dryers, we use landfill gas.
Check out this video from our partner CDM Smith on the overall process.
