It takes just over three weeks: flush a toilet in Didcot, England and 23 days later, it has produced biomethane that heats about 200 homes—through the national grid.
The BBC explains how the project goes beyond existing waste-to-energy facilities:
The practice of using anaerobic digesters – carefully managed bacteria – to turn faeces into a means of generating electricity is already well established across the country. But the additional plant that British Gas has installed at the Thames Water sewage treatment works in Didcot cleans up the spare biogas that is produced and turns it into biomethane suitable for household hobs and in gas central heating.
The project is a joint effort by British Gas, Thames Water and Scotia Gas Networks, which collectively hope to replicate the process across the UK.
Expanding beyond Didcot
British Gas already has four other biogas-to-grid projects planned, but it’s not the only company going down this path.
Projects that feed biogas into the grid are not new, and even exist in the U.S., but this is thought to be the first time people are using their own human waste to power homes through the natural gas grid.
United Utilities and Ecotricity also have plans in the works to feed biomethane into the grid, and if the company’s estimate is accurage, United Utilities could by powering 500 homes this way as soon as next summer.
NewNet quotes an official from Thames Water: “For decades we’ve generated electricity by burning sewage sludge or methane derived from it, saving £15m in power bills last year alone.”
Using biomethane from sewage as another source of gas was just the next step on their “renewable energy hit list.”
If you’ve in the market for a toilet, you’re probably weighing your options for optimal performance and eco-friendliness. Dual-flush toilets were a great option for a while, since they used far less water for liquid waste, but the newest high-efficiency toilets are using a gallon or less of water per flush, every flush.
So how do they work?
The Stealth has a larger water spot (opening), allowing waste to be flushed away more easily. The system uses water and air to force waste down and refill the bowl. What’s nice about the design is it functions well even with changes in water pressure, which happens in a lot of older areas.
The Power Assist uses a powerful but quiet compressed air system to force the waste through the pipes–similar to the systems used on airplanes and on trains. And the toilet is able to flush twice the weight of the average solid waste.
What does this mean for you?
For a family of four with each person flushing the toilet five times daily, it means up to 20,000 gallons in water savings yearly over a standard toilet, which will save you about $100 each year. If you have a high efficiency toilet that uses 1.6 gallons per flush, a family of four will still save more than 6,000 gallons of water each year with the Stealth, or about 5,000 gallons with Foremost Group’s toilet.
So whether you’re remodeling or you’re just looking to upgrade to a more efficient toilet, the newest one-gallon-or-less per flush toilets are the way to go.
Now it’s becoming harder to recycle plastic, here’s a chance to re-use those plastic bottles instead.
Refill
NOT Landfill
Those of you who are regular customers probably remember when I first started refilling Ecover Laundry liquid several years ago – a bit “Heath Robinson”, but it worked.
Well, the refill policy of Ecover has taken off big time and is now well established – to the extent that the non-refill equivalent products hardly sell at all anymore!
The upshot is that, if something works out, then “rinse and repeat”; so I have, and from this week you can now refills of Faith in Nature shampoo, conditioner and shower gel.
So, to be precise, you can now refill the following products:-
Ecover Laundry liquid
Ecover fabric conditioner
Ecover washing up liquid
Ecover hand soap
Faith in Nature Lavender & geranium shampoo
Faith in Nature Lavender & geranium conditioner
Faith in Nature Lavender & geranium shower gel
Faith in Nature Tea tree shampoo
Faith in Nature Tea tree condition
Of course, the Faith in Nature range is free from parabens & other chemical nasties and, just like the Ecover products, when you refill, you save money.
But most importantly, you don’t throw the plastic away!